"zob" (U.S. slang, rare) may have its origin in a baseball conte...

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

"Zob" with the variants "zobi", "zeb" or "zébi" is well established in French slang since at least 1870 (Esnault, Dictionnaire des argots). It comes from maghrebin Arabic "zebbi" or classical Arabic "zubb". The sense of the word is "penis", and it is very often used pejoratively about a person.
Jan Ivarsson

----- Original Message -----
From: "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "zob" (U.S. slang, rare) may have its origin in a baseball conte...


> In a message dated 03/22/2003 11:20:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> gcohen at UMR.EDU writes:
>
>
> >    1911 W. F. KIRK Right off Bat 13 He came here in the early Spring
> > with all the try-out mob Striving to bat like Wagner and to slide
> > (spikes first) like Cobb. Some of the vets cried, 'Bonehead!' Others
> > remarked, 'Poor zob!'
> > 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
> >
>
> Is it significant that in the 1911 quote "zob" rhymes with "mob" and "Cobb",
> and that in the 1920 quote it (almost) rhymes with "snobs"?
>
>                  - Jim Landau
>