cobbler

Etymology 1

From Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown; possibly from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“round object”) (see Etymology 3). 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.

noun

1. A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
   (maker):
   (repairer):
2. (Australia, New Zealand, agriculture, slang) A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch).
3. (obsolete) A person who cobbles (“to assemble or mend in an improvised or rough way”); a clumsy workman.

Etymology 2

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.

noun

1. (US, alcoholic beverages) An (iced) alcoholic drink containing spirit or wine, with lemon juice and sugar.
   In the creed of Asirvadam the Brahmin, the drinker of strong drink is a Pariah, and the eater of cow's flesh is damned already. If, then, he can tell a cocktail from a cobbler, and scientifically discriminate between a julep and a gin-sling, it must be because the Vedas are unclasped to him; for in the Vedas all things are taught. 1858 June, “Asirvadam the Brahmin”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics, volume II, number VIII, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company,[…]; London: Trübner and Company, →OCLC, page 86, column 1

Etymology 3

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.

noun

1. A roadworker who lays cobbles.

Etymology 4

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.

noun

1. (Britain, dialectal)
   1. The shiny, hard seed of the horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum), especially when used in the game of the same name (sense 1.2); a conker, a horse chestnut.
   2. (games) Synonym of conkers (“a game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a cobbler (sense 1.1) or conker) suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed”)

Etymology 5

Origin unknown.

noun

1. Used as a name for various animals.
   1. (Australia) Also estuary cobbler:
      1. The South Australian catfish (Cnidoglanis macrocephalus), a species of catfish native to Australia which has dorsal and pectoral fins bearing sharp, venomous spines.
         Fished for cobblers in the evening. The warbler sings its night-song. The species of fish referred to is uncertain. 10 November 1831, George Fletcher Moore, “The Journey”, in Martin Doyle, editor, Extracts from the Letters and Journals of George Fletcher Moore, Esq.[…], London: Orr and Smith,[…]; Dublin: W. Curry, Jun. & Co.[…], published 1834, →OCLC, page 122
      2. The soldier or South Australian cobbler (Gymnapistes marmoratus), a brown fish native to southern Australian estuaries which is not closely related to Cnidoglanis macrocephalus, but also has venemous spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins.
   2. (Britain)
      1. Also river cobbler: basa (Pangasius bocourti), an edible species of shark catfish native to the Chao Phraya and Mekong river basins in Southeast Asia.
      2. Pangas catfish (Pangasius pangasius), an edible species of shark catfish native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.
   3. (US) Condica sutor, an owlet moth native to North America.
2. (usually in the plural, slang) A police officer.
   Look out: it’s the cobblers!

Etymology 6

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 make things like traditional suet pudding and so fit together pieces of other pastry-topping materials.

noun

1. (US) Often preceded by a descriptive word as in apple cobbler, peach cobbler, etc.: a kind of pie, usually filled with fruit, originally having a crust at the base but nowadays generally lacking this and instead topped with a thick, cake-like pastry layer.

Etymology 7

From cobbler's awls.

noun

1. (Cockney rhyming slang, chiefly in the plural) A testicle.