cob
pronunciation
How to pronounce cob in British English:
UK [kɒb]
How to pronounce cob in American English:
US [kɑb]
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- Noun:
- nut of any of several trees of the genus Corylus
- stocky short-legged harness horse
- white gull having a black back and wings
- adult male swan
Word Origin
- cob
- cob: [15] Cob has a bizarre range of meanings – ‘nut’, ‘horse’, ‘male swan’, ‘loaf’, ‘ear of maize’ – but a distillation of them points back to an original ‘head, or something similarly rounded’ (cobnuts and cobloaves, for example, are spherical, and the male swan is the ‘chief’ or ‘leader’). It is therefore tempting to see a connection with the now obsolete cop ‘top, head’ (probably represented in cobweb), and even with Latin caput ‘head’.=> cobble
- cob (n.)
- a word or set of identical words with a wide range of meanings, many seeming to derive from notions of "heap, lump, rounded object," also "head" and its metaphoric extensions. With cognates in other Germanic languages; of uncertain origin and development. "The N.E.D. recognizes eight nouns cob, with numerous sub-groups. Like other monosyllables common in the dial[ect] its hist[ory] is inextricable" [Weekley]. In the 2nd print edition, the number stands at 11. Some senses are probably from Old English copp "top, head," others probably from Old Norse kubbi or Low German, all perhaps from a Proto-Germanic base *kubb- "something rounded." Among the earliest attested English senses are "headman, chief," and "male swan," both early 15c., but the surname Cobb (1066) suggests Old English used a form of the word as a nickname for "big, leading man." The "corn shoot" sense is attested by 1680s.
Example
- 1. My mom was corn cob queen in 1970 .
- 2. Do you eat corn on the cob ?
- 3. The different position of silk and cob have the same trend .
- 4. Cob , arrest this man and get him out of here !
- 5. He sold tea cooked eggs and boiled corn on the cob and I sometimes stopped off for a snack .