Clob (Kipling)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Somewhat earlier we have:
>
>1892 Kipling 'Loot' in _Barrack-Room Ballads_ When from 'ouse to 'ouse
>you're 'unting, you must always work in pairs -- / It 'alves the gain,
>but safer you will find -- / For a single man gets bottled on them
>twisty-wisty stairs, / An a' woman comes and clobs 'im from be'ind.
>
>Which surely must be synonymous with the quoted use of _clobber_. But
>_clob_ does not exist in this def. in OED or EDD, only as a dialect term
>for a lump (i.e. clod) of earth. The OED has clobber as 'ety.unknown',
>but is it too far-fetched to see the tossing of a clob - in play, as an
>attack - as a feasible precursor of the vb. That said, there are no
>reports of a vb. use of clob itself...

Hard to say for sure from a single instance, but I think this "clob" is
likely "club" (verb), the odd spelling likely intended to indicate some
dialectal pronunciation (there are also "baynick" = "bayonet", "prodooce" =
"produce", etc., in the same poem).

At least the noun "club" has been spelled "clobb", "clob", etc. (although
long ago) [OED, DOST].

Or it could even be a transcription error or typo.

-- Doug Wilson


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.15/580 - Release Date: 12/8/2006

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org