cobbler

cobbler · noun¹

1. Middle English · inherited fromcobeler
2. English todaycobbler

Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler. Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.

cobbler · noun²

Uncertain; it has been suggested that the word derives from cobbler’s punch (“warm drink made of beer with added spirit, sugar, and spices”), or because the drink patches up (“repairs; makes better”) the drinker.

cobbler · noun³

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gup-“round object; knoll”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kuppaz“round object, orb; knoll; hilltop, summit; crown or top of the head; head; skull; bowl; container, vessel”
3. Old English · inherited fromcop
4. English todaycobbler

From cobble (“rounded stone used for paving roads, cobblestone”) + -er (occupational suffix). Cobble is from Late Middle English, from cobbe (“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”) + -le, -el (suffix forming diminutives). The further etymology of cobbe is uncertain; it is perhaps a variant of cop (“the top of something (a house, tower, mountain, tree, etc.); crown or top of the head; the head”), from Old English cop, copp (“summit, top; cup, vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“round object, orb; knoll; hilltop, summit; crown or top of the head; head; skull; bowl; container, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object; knoll”), from *gew- (“to bend, curve; an arch, vault”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary.

cobbler · noun⁴

1. Middle English · inherited fromcobbe“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”
2. English todaycobbler

Probably a variant of or related to cob, cobb (“stony fruit kernel; nut used in the game of conkers, conker; game of conkers”), perhaps from Middle English cobbe (“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”): see further at etymology 3.

cobbler · noun⁵

Origin unknown.

cobbler · noun⁶

Uncertain. First attested in 1859; various suggested etymologies include: * the top having the appearance of cobblestone rather than smooth rolled-out pastry; * Middle English cobeler, some type of wooden bowl, dish, or vessel (mentioned in a 1385 list of wooden vessels) * the dish having been cobbled together, as it is suggested it may have originated in the British colonies in America among settlers who lacked ingredients and tools to make things like traditional suet pudding and so fit together pieces of other pastry-topping materials.

cobbler · noun⁷

From cobbler's awls as rhyming slang for balls.

Words from the same roots