Etymology of Cobwebs

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you doing today?

Great, who is this?

This is Bobby from Indianapolis.

Indianapolis, welcome to the show, Bobby.

What can we do for you?

Hi, Bobby.

Well, I was looking on Facebook the other day,

And a friend had mentioned that she had some spring cleaning to do,

And specifically she needed to clean out the cobwebs in her house.

But it occurred to her that she didn’t know exactly why the dusty old spiderwebs

Were referred to as cobwebs.

And it occurred to me that this friend can’t really do a proper job of spring cleaning if she doesn’t understand the terminology.

Well, you’re exactly right.

So my question is, why do we call them cobwebs?

Well, it’s pretty straightforward.

Cop or cob is an old word for spider in Middle English.

C-O-P-P-E or C-O-P is simply a word for spider or round thing.

And it’s connected to some cognates and some other similar Germanic languages.

And so cob, it’s pretty much the only place in English where that particular meaning of spider still exists, right?

That word for spider, right, is in cobwebs.

So it’s a kind of an archaeism that lasted longer than it should.

You know how sometimes they find these deep sea fishes that are throwbacks to millions of years ago?

Cob is kind of like that.

That’s a great analogy.

And I have seen people refer to cobwebs as sort of used spiderwebs.

They’re not active anymore.

Oh, interesting.

So it’s not just any old spider web.

It’s the one that’s kind of fraying and coming apart.

Yeah, left behind.

Now, have you read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Bobby?

Yeah, it’s been a while.

I’ve, of course, seen all the movies, but it’s been a while since I’ve read the book, but I have.

In the book, and I don’t think it’s in the movie, I might be misremembering,

There is a part where Bilbo is fighting giant spiders in the forest.

And to taunt them, he’s wearing the ring, I believe, that makes him invisible.

To taunt them, he starts singing a song, a poem.

And in the poem, it’s got the words Adder Cop.

Adder Cop, Adder Cop, once you stop.

The cop in Adder Cop is the same as cob in cobweb.

And Adder means poison and cob, cop means spider.

So poison spider, poison head.

So a lot of modern people will only know Adder Cop from the Tolkien poem.

But it’s the only other example I have that the modern person might have found that relates back to that cob for spider.

I can’t think of any other ones.

Well, I had to go back and look at that passage in the book and enjoy that again.

But I didn’t know if it had something to do with corn cobs or corn cribs, places that could be dusty.

No, just a coincidence.

It sounds like it’s just an old word that we still have a vestige of.

Yeah, exactly.

It’s good to know.

Well, now we can do our spring cleaning and do it with a fair conscience.

You know, I recommend you sit down with a glass of iced tea first, maybe read a magazine or something.

Just have a break.

You deserve it.

It does sound tiring.

I think I’ll just pull out a book like The Hobbit or something.

There we go.

Yeah, there you go.

Thanks for calling, Bobby.

Really appreciate it.

Thanks very much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I have a great quotation about cobwebs from 1557.

Okay.

Laws of men may be likened to cobwebs, which do tie and hold the little flies fast,

But the great flies breaketh firth and escape.

Breaketh firth and escape.

Yeah.

And I have the rest of that Tolkien poem here if you’d like.

Oh, yes, please.

Old fat spider spinning in a tree.

Old fat spider can’t see me.

Attercop, Attercop, won’t you stop?

Stop your spinning and look for me.

Old Tom Noddy, all big body.

Old Tom Noddy can’t spy me.

Attercop, Attercop, down you drop.

You’ll never catch me up in your tree.

How about that?

That’s very musical.

I like it.

Yeah, well, Tolkien did a lot of poems, and actually we have recordings of him singing some of the stuff that he wrote.

Oh, that one?

That would be so cool.

He was the whole universe.

He built it.

Songs, music, styling, everything.

Language.

Language. It’s all in there.

Well, this is a show about language, not just history of language, but the way language is actually used today.

Give us a call if you’ve got questions about that.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.