Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗To give birth to cubs. · To hunt fox cubs. · To shut up or confine.
The young of certain animals, chiefly large carnivorous mammals, including the bear, wolf, fox, lion and tiger. · A child, especially an awkward, rude, ill-mannered boy. · A young man who seeks relationships with older women, or "cougars". · A stall for cattle.
From earlier cubbe. Origin unknown. According to Pokorny, from Proto-Germanic *kubb-, from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object, knoll”), from *gew- (“to bend, curve, convex, arch, vault”). Related terms include cup (cf. cupboard), coffin, cove, etc, essentially “chamber”, thus cub maybe initially derived from the sense “den”, or maybe “womb”. A probable cognate is also found in North Germanic: dialectal Swedish kubbe, kybbe, köbbe, kibb, Danish kippe (“calf”). Also compare Icelandic and Old Norse kobbi (“seal”), Old Irish cuib (“whelp”). Compare also English cob. Originally, the meaning was specifically "young fox", in which sense it has largely replaced English whelp.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 5 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.
{
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{
"name": "unk",
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"title": "unknown"
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{
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{
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"expansion": "Swedish kubbe"
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{
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"2": "kippe",
"3": "",
"4": "calf"
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},
{
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"2": "kobbi",
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},
{
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"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/kubb-"
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"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gup-"
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"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gew-"
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"whelp",
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{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To give birth to cubs.",
"To hunt fox cubs.",
"To shut up or confine."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
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"The young of certain animals, chiefly large carnivorous mammals, including the bear, wolf, fox, lion and tiger.",
"A child, especially an awkward, rude, ill-mannered boy.",
"A young man who seeks relationships with older women, or \"cougars\".",
"A stall for cattle."
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