Cobweb
March 22, 2006
Today, a meeting with my bank led me to discover the origin of the word cobweb. Before leaving the office, I asked around if anyone wanted anything from the outside world. One of my office buddies was in desperate need of fairtrade chocolate, so I found myself in an Oxfam shop, which also sells second-hand books, amongst which I spotted Brewer’s fable and phrases dictionary. I left the shop and made a mental note to come back with more than £1.20 on me. Back at the office, I realised that this very dictionary is actually available online. And it is while I was having a look at various entries that I found the one for cobweb, which explains that cob is teutonic for "spider". I had an extra piece of chocolate to celebrate this little find.
Comments
Interesting - one of the Welsh words for spider is cop. Maybe it comes from the same root as cob.
Posted by Simon on March 23, 2006 4:23 PM
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