Talk:cobble
RFV
[edit]
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Rfv-sense: verb: To tell someone a story of dubious authenticity. Not in any of the likely OneLook sources. DCDuring TALK 18:00, 1 December 2012 (UTC)
- Perhaps they meant cobble together a story, which is well attested but doesn't belong at cobble. Equinox ◑ 19:42, 1 December 2012 (UTC)
- I guess cobble together necessarily implies the likely falsity of the story, but that does not seem part of the inherent meaning. Just as a cobbled-together computer program is likely to be buggy and failure-prone. DCDuring TALK 22:36, 1 December 2012 (UTC)
- RFV-failed for now. (Might be citable if someone knew where to look.) Had the Finnish translations "narrata (fi), uunottaa". - -sche (discuss) 05:38, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
Cob, cobble Etymology
[edit]There is only one word that fully answers to COB > COBBLE1, and that is Gaelic CAOB, (clod, lump, piece of anything cut off, et cetera)[5], in which sense, compare Pre-Celtic Pictish KEVV (stone)[4]. The √ is KĒPH[7]. CAOB, only in the senses above provides any relation to COB[7], that is possibly partially influenced by Germanic COP (head)[4]. Other senses of COB are from different origins than that of the Gaelic form[6]. The only one that might remotely answer to Welsh COP (head), in the sense of 'tuft' is the usage: 'COB wall'[4] - frequent in Cornwall; but even this is really dubious. In the sense of 'head', Welsh COP, I believe, is borrowed from Germanic[7].
[0] means 'Absolutely not; [1] means 'Exceedingly unlikely'; [2] means 'Very dubious'; [3] means 'Questionable'; [4] means 'Possible'; [5] means 'Probable'; [6] means 'Likely'; [7] means 'Most Likely' or *Unattested; [8] means 'Attested'; [9] means 'Obvious' - only used for close matches within the same language or dialect, at linkable periods. √ means original or earliest root.