Talk:cob

Other Uses
Primarily in the Midlands, UK, used as the name for a sandwich or a bap. --Codesleuth 10:53, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

RFV
I cannot attest the following verb senses: —Caesura(t) 01:40, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent.
 * It's plausible that such a verb could exist (perhaps derived from the noun cob meaning a building material), but there are no relevant hits for phrases like "cobbed the wall".
 * 1) To cut, trim or break into blocks of a convenient size.
 * I'm guessing that the author of this sense had the mining meaning in mind ("To break ore into small pieces, so as to sort out the valuable portion") but wasn't sure of the exact definition. No relevant hits for phrases like "cobbed into blocks".


 * Sense 2 appears to be from an old Webster dictionary, which in no way negates the need for citations but does suggest that it is probably real, if only as dated dialect. Equinox ◑ 01:44, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Really? Where do you see it? Neither the 1828 edition nor the 1913 edition seems to have it. —Caesura(t) 02:02, 31 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Cancel that. I think one of those spammy dictionary-aggregator pages fooled me. No doubt they copied our entry and mixed it up with Webster. Equinox ◑ 02:06, 31 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Three cites for the first one . For the second sense this might be relevant, but it is not unambiguous. Spinning Spark  00:33, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Nice job. The first ones look good for that sense. The last one looks like it would fit fine into the mining sense. Maybe that is the only context in which it will be attestable in that meaning. DCDuring TALK 00:58, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm getting some hits for break off pieces rather than break into pieces - such as a sculptor would do. This one  on making ancient crystal skulls for instance.  And this one  concerning the production of paving blocks may explain the error of the def - the blocks are shaped by cobbing, but it is still breaking off small pieces. Spinning Spark  01:17, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * |cobbing+stone|rock|lumps&source=bl&ots=HII_Kl8IFq&sig=GdNz-eF9p30hgNKg--o18cVLJbQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AmZBUNXBFafU0gHxuIDQDg&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBDge#v=onepage&q=cobbed|cobbing%20stone|rock|lumps&f=false One source discriminated among stages in 'dressing' ore: ragging, spalling, cobbing, and bucking. Only the first was a man's job. 'Cobbing' involved knocking less desirable or waste material off the good material. 'Bucking' meant hammering small pieces into powder for subsequent processing. DCDuring TALK 01:40, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw several books where cobbing and crushing were mentioned separately (haven't bothered to go back and find the cites). This suggests that the mining sense might have problems as well.  Most, if not all, of the mining hits from gbooks could be read as "break off pieces" rather than "break into pieces".  I think we have enough now to rewrite this combining both senses. Spinning Spark  07:49, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Interesting that our access to a large number of works using the term may put us in a better position to define the term than those writing definitions contemporary to such uses. DCDuring TALK 12:48, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * This has apparently been resolved; RFV-passed as cited. - -sche (discuss) 05:45, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

RFV discussion: November–December 2021
Rfv-sense: The top or head of anything. - probably has a number of hits, should be quite easy with some imaginative searching MooreDoor (talk) 18:31, 1 November 2021 (UTC)
 * This is probably overly broad. I have documented the seed-bearing head of a plant. Kiwima (talk) 02:42, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
 * It might not have survived out of Middle English into modern English; compare cobbe, hypothesized to be a variant of cop (see sense 2). — SGconlaw (talk) 10:48, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
 * It's the shape, surely? Lump 'cobb', cob, cobble, cobbler (who uses a last - again the rounded shape). Cob loaf, and just working on 'cobber' which may relate to the circle of friends. 125.237.189.20 06:04, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 23:05, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

RFD discussion: October 2021–February 2022
sense: A Spanish coin formerly current in Ireland, worth about four shillings and sixpence. - not sure if this is a separate term, or just Irish English for the Spanish money MooreDoor (talk) 17:12, 30 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Comment. It seems extremely plausible this is the same sense, and not a specifically Irish one. The first two quotations for the preceding, not location-bound sense actually are uses of the term in Ireland, while the next two show that cobs were also common in the same period in the English colonies in North America. The Wikipedia article states: “The term cob was used in Ireland and the British colonies to mean a piece of eight or a Spanish-American dollar, because Spanish gold and silver coins were irregularly shaped and crudely struck during this period.”  --Lambiam 14:32, 2 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Merged. - -sche (discuss) 01:16, 20 February 2022 (UTC)