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

[Beverly Flanigan]

Oops--that means we'd better not use the word anymore--on three counts.

At 10:56 AM 3/23/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>"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
> >