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Inherited from Middle Englishcobeler, cobelere(“mender of shoes, cobbler”);[1] further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble(“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er(suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler.[2][3]
Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’slast(“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”);[2] while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.
Synonyms:(obsolete, one sense)botcher, (India, archaic)chuckler, (Britain, slang, obsolete)lad of wax, shoemender, (Northern England, Scotland)souter, (Ireland, dated)waxie, (Britain, slang, obsolete)waxy
1647, Jerome Bellamie, “Postscript”, in Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America., London: J D & R I for Stephen Bowtell,, →OCLC; The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (Force’s Collection of Historical Tracts; vol. III, no. 8), 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Daniel Henchman,; , 1713 (1844 printing), →OCLC, page 58:
This honest Cobler has done what he might: / That Statesmen in their Shoes might walk upright. / But rotten Shoes of Spannish running-leather: / No Coblers skill, can stitch them strong together.
1710 February 21 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 15. Friday, February 10. ”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq;, volume IV, London: Jacob Tonson,, published 1721, →OCLC, page 414:
[W]hat would they think of a Frenchcobler cutting ſhoes for ſeveral of his fellow-ſubjects out of an old apple-tree?
All honeſt jogg trotmen, who go on ſmoothly and dully, and write hiſtory and politics, and are praiſed; and who, had they been bred coblers, would all their lives have only mended ſhoes, but never made them.
Uncertain; it has been suggested that the word derives from cobbler’s punch(“warm drink made of beer with added spirit, sugar, and spices”), or because the drink patches up(“repairs; makes better”) the drinker.[2]
[H]e produced a very large tumbler, piled up to the brim with little blocks of clear transparent ice, through which one or two thin slices of lemon, and a golden liquid of delicious appearance, appeared from the still depths below, to the loving eye of the spectator. […] "This wonderful invention, sir," said Mark, tenderly patting the empty glass, "is called a cobbler. Sherry cobbler when you name it long; cobbler, when you name it short.[…]"
In the creed of Asirvadam the Brahmin, the drinker of strong drink is a Pariah, and the eater of cow's flesh is damned already. If, then, he can tell a cocktail from a cobbler, and scientifically discriminate between a julep and a gin-sling, it must be because the Vedas are unclasped to him; for in the Vedas all things are taught.
From cobble(“rounded stone used for paving roads, cobblestone”) + -er(occupational suffix). Cobble is from Late Middle English, from cobbe(“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”)[4] + -le, -el(suffix forming diminutives).[5][6] The further etymology of cobbe is uncertain; it is perhaps a variant of cop(“the top of something (a house, tower, mountain, tree, etc.); crown or top of the head; the head”),[7] from Old Englishcop, copp(“summit, top; cup, vessel”), from Proto-Germanic*kuppaz(“round object, orb; knoll; hilltop, summit; crown or top of the head; head; skull; bowl; container, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European*gup-(“round object; knoll”), from *gew-(“to bend, curve; an arch, vault”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary.[8]
Probably a variant of or related to cob, cobb(“stony fruit kernel; nut used in the game of conkers, conker; game of conkers”),[9] perhaps from Middle Englishcobbe(“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”): see further at etymology 3.
["A]n' 'e was mad, an' so he snatched my cobbler an' run off with it. An' so I run after 'im, an' when I was gettin' hold of him, 'e dodged, an' it ripped 'is collar. But I got my cobbler—" He pulled from his pocket a black old horse-chestnut hanging on a string. This old cobbler had "cobbled"—hit and smashed—seventeen other cobblers on similar strings. So this boy was proud of his veteran.
Uncertain. First attested in 1859;[11] various suggested etymologies include:
the top having the appearance of cobblestone rather than smooth rolled-out pastry;[11]
Middle English cobeler, some type of wooden bowl, dish, or vessel (mentioned in a 1385 list of wooden vessels)[11]
the dish having been cobbled together, as it is suggested it may have originated in the British colonies in America among settlers who lacked ingredients and tools to make make things like traditional suet pudding and so fit together pieces of other pastry-topping materials.[12][13]
I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot when I arrive—as follows: […] Apple puffs, Southern style. Peach cobbler, Southern style. Peach pie. American mince pie.
Translations
kind of pie, usually filled with fruit and topped with a thick, cake-like pastry layer
^ Shepherd, Johnny (2016) Puddings: Over 100 Classic Puddings from Cakes, Tarts, Crumbles and Pies to all Things Chocolatey, Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN, retrieved 7 June 2021, page 62