Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗A corncob. · The seed-bearing head of a plant. · Clipping of cobnut. · A male swan.
To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent. · To have the heads mature into corncobs. · To remove the kernels from a corncob. · To thresh.
Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”). Some other senses likely originated as a variant of cop (“head, top, peak, summit”). In other senses, the word may be related to cub, itself of obscure origin but possibly from Old Norse kobbi (“seal”). However, many alternative etymologies have been proposed to account for some or all senses of cob; various sources have related it, for example, to English cot (“cottage”), Welsh cob (“top, tuft”), or German Kübel (“large container”). All these etymologies are disputed, and the exact origins of cob cannot be known with any certainty.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 17 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "unc",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "uncertain"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "cobbe",
"t": "male swan; gang leader; bully"
},
"expansion": "Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "kobbi",
"3": "",
"4": "seal"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse kobbi (“seal”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cot",
"3": "",
"4": "cottage"
},
"expansion": "English cot (“cottage”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "cy",
"2": "cob",
"3": "",
"4": "top, tuft"
},
"expansion": "Welsh cob (“top, tuft”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "Kübel",
"3": "",
"4": "large container"
},
"expansion": "German Kübel (“large container”)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"cobbe",
"cobbe#Middle_English"
],
[
"cop",
"cop#English"
],
[
"cub",
"cub#English"
],
[
"kobbi",
"kobbi#Old_Norse"
],
[
"cot",
"cot#English"
],
[
"cob",
"cob#Welsh"
],
[
"Kübel",
"Kübel#German"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A corncob.",
"The seed-bearing head of a plant.",
"Clipping of cobnut.",
"A male swan."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable",
"abbreviation",
"alt-of",
"clipping"
],
"recordId": "125aadc15e8128661122bd6928184b2d4d8b5fd069693b45031b2aace31679ec",
"rawRecordSha256": "bf169806612ea1b4d32980659801ef38ddd3fbe046fe62e27a073468f1c50531",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 166984
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent.",
"To have the heads mature into corncobs.",
"To remove the kernels from a corncob.",
"To thresh."
],
"tags": [],
"recordId": "4917886a3e44884c550441af281712f7de0b0079dbd2da119781066c029732ac",
"rawRecordSha256": "2f5f70e5faba2fb476d67ba3dc2084bdcf2b4add3c33b9b53c85ae6061c82b20",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 166985
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 17,
"glosses": 0
}
}