"zob" (U.S. slang, rare) may have its origin in a baseball context; new (1913) attestation

Mark Worden mworden at WIZZARDS.NET
Sat Mar 22 18:28:39 UTC 2003


It's refreshing to see Yahoo in this context.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerald Cohen" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 8:12 AM
Subject: "zob" (U.S. slang, rare) may have its origin in a baseball context;
new (1913) attestation
[snip]
> 1920 S. LEWIS Main Street xxxv. 416 And the same thing goes for that
> crowd of crabs and snobs Down East, and next time you hear some zob
> from Yahooville-on-the-Hudson chewing the rag..you tell him that
> no..Westerner would have New York for a gift!
> 1922  Babbitt x. 140, I don't know how you fellows feel about
> prohibition, but the way it strikes me is that it's a mighty
> beneficial thing for the poor zob that hasn't got any will-power but
> for fellows like us, it's an infringement of
> personal liberty.
> 1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §396 Terms of
> disparagement..yaphead, yazzihamper, zob.



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