What does cobb mean?
Cobb is a noun denoting a rounded lump or small compact mass, most often of coal, earth, or stone. It belongs largely to regional and older British and American usage, where workers might speak of feeding a cobb of coal to a furnace, and it overlaps closely with the more common spelling cob, which covers a wider range of meanings including bread, horses, swans, and corn on the cob. Beyond this literal sense, cobb persists today mainly within fixed names: the Cobb salad, a hearty American chopped salad created in Hollywood in the 1930s and named after restaurateur Robert Cobb, and the Cobb angle, the standard radiographic measure of spinal curvature in scoliosis. Because of these overlapping uses, writers should reserve cobb for the lump sense or the established proper names, and prefer cob elsewhere. The word's rhymes include mob, job, and blob.
A rounded lump or small mass, especially of coal, earth, or stone.
"The cellar was stacked with cobbs of coal for the winter."
Chiefly regional and somewhat dated; the spelling cob is more common for comparable senses.
Used attributively in the names Cobb salad and Cobb angle, both eponyms rather than senses of the common noun itself.
"The menu listed a classic Cobb salad with avocado and blue cheese."
In these fixed names the word is capitalized and functions as part of a proper noun.
Regular plural; rare outside dialectal or historical descriptions of coal handling.
"The delivery wagon tipped out a load of cobbs by the coal house door."
The same little word that names a lump of coal also lends its name to one of America's most famous salads — and to the standard way doctors measure scoliosis.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cobb
Cobb is a variant form of cob, a Middle English word of uncertain deeper origin that denotes something rounded or lumpy — a sense reflected in related formations such as cobble (a rounded stone) and cobweb (originally a web of a 'cob', or spider). The word has been used since at least the early modern period for lumps of coal and stone. Its modern prominence owes much to eponymous coinages: the Cobb salad, created around 1937 at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and named after Robert Howard Cobb, and the Cobb angle, described by orthopedic surgeon John R. Cobb in the mid-twentieth century.
How cobb is actually used
As a common noun, cobb is largely regional and somewhat dated, appearing mostly in dialectal and industrial contexts; the spelling cob is far more widespread for similar senses. In modern everyday usage, the word survives most visibly in proper-noun contexts such as Cobb salad and the Cobb angle used in spinal measurements.
Easily confused with cobb
Cob is the standard spelling for a round loaf of bread, a horse, a male swan, or corn on the cob, while cobb is a less common variant spelling referring chiefly to a lump of coal or stone.
A cobbler is a person who repairs shoes or a fruit dessert, whereas a cobb is simply a rounded lump or mass.