Etymology

zob

Z10O1B3

Today it means: A good-for-nothing person. Full definition →

French zob ← Arabic زُبّ
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The story

  1. Arabic · derived fromزُبّ
  2. French · borrowed fromzob“dick, cock”
  3. English todayzob

Claimed by Swedish scholar Jan Ivarsson (quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang) to derive from French zob (“dick, cock”), itself from Arabic زُبّ (zubb).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.