Any ideas as to the origin of the phrase "to have a cob on" meaning 'to be annoyed'..?!
W Boddy, Cambridge, UK
See Also
Cob Building Ingredients - How to Choose the Right MaterialsCob building - Heritage CraftsCob loaf fever has struck and its fillings are endlessBun! A Taxonomy of the British Bread Roll — Pellicle- Barmy as it sounds, a quick scroll through 'www.historielamodedupain.co.fr' reveals that in the late 17th century elite classes took to wearing bread as some kind of status symbol. The cob loaf was one such sought-after piece of headwear, and it was also seen as a sign of power and wealth if you walked using a 'French stick' for support.I won't get into 'baps' as that gets into risque territory, but needless to say, these too were highly prized, assuming you had copious amounts of dough, of course.Soda phrase 'to have a cob on' was originally used in a derogative way to mean something like 'all high and mighty', but this has changed over time to mean 'in a bad mood' or 'half-baked.' Rye this happened is a matter for historical linguistics.I would add more but my taxi's here.
Shaun Tooze, Barrow-in-Furness UK
- As cob is the Old English word for a spider (now only found in the combination form "cobweb"), perhaps the presence of this arachnid was popularly supposed to impart or aggravate an ill temper.
John Bennett, Glasgow Scotland
- I did a bit of 'research' but found nothing conclusive. However I do wonder if 1) it could be related to an expression with a similar meaning, "to have or give someone the hump"? So, when someone is annoyed or in a sulk, they may put their head down and adopt a hunched posture that gives them a 'hump' on their upper back - and the main definition of 'cob' is 'lump or rounded object' (as in the shape of a 'cob-loaf')... hence to "have a cob on"... 2) I had also wondered if it was related to the word 'cobby', meaning 'lively, arrogant, like a cob-horse' (a short-legged, strong breed, no doubt a bit stout and 'rounded' too).3) The spider theory is very interesting too - my dictionary has the word 'attercop' - an obsolete/dialect word for a spider, literally meaning 'poison head', OR 'an ill-natured person'!! (and the word was cross referenced in my dictionary with cob-web ('attercop'-web)...
W Boddy, Cambridge, UK
- My Liverpudlian mother tells a tale of her grandmother being made to pin her hair back as an adolescent in order to look smart to attend Sunday school. As she tells the tale local urchins would watch the more affluent children being marshalled into the church with their "cob loaf" style hair and pained expressions and tease them. During the week a child that was sulky in the same manner would often be described as having a cob on.
Simon Ward, Sydney Australia
