cub

Etymology

It is of unknown origin;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the word is not recorded in Middle English.^[7] The OED notes a comparison with a rare Old Irish cuib (“dog”), but finds no historical link;^[2][8] Etymonline suggests the Old Irish word, glossed "whelp", or Old Norse kobbi (“seal”),^[7] and Barnhart thinks it perhaps cognate with the Old Norse word and with kubbi (“block, lump”), and so with cob.^[9] Collins and Dictionary.com also point to Old Norse.^[10][11] Weekley and Klein relate kobbi and Norwegian kobbe (“seal”) to kubbe (“block, stump”), from the idea of a heavy, shapeless body, and Klein goes on to cup;^[12][13] Skeat compared a Shetland verb meaning to give birth, said only of a seal.^[14] Liberman places cub among the many short animal names of the shape k + vowel + b, which seem to be of sound-symbolic origin.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young fox: 1530, in Palsgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][9][12]

Semantic evolution

From 1600, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, it was used of the young of a bear, wolf, lion, tiger or other wild animal, and also of a young whale;^[2][7] in this use it has replaced the native word whelp.^[9][7][12] Shakespeare also applied it to an uncouth youth (before 1616);^[2][16] early in the 17th century, cub for a child or novice was briefly slang, used for a gambler likely to be cheated, before it became standard.^[17] Weekley explains unlicked cub by the belief that a bear licks its young into shape.^[12] The sense of an apprentice or beginner is American, first in Mark Twain (1875) for an apprentice steamboat pilot, and the cub reporter followed;^[2][16] a junior Scout has been a Cub since 1922.^[2][7] From 1698 to 1702 cub was also the name of a surgeon's assistant at St Thomas's Hospital, London.^[2] The verb, to bring forth cubs, is first recorded in Johnson's Dictionary (1755), and hunting cubs has been cubbing since 1926.^[2]

Timeline

• 1530 – a young fox.^[2][9]
• 1600 – the young of a bear, lion or other wild animal.^[2]
• before 1616 – an uncouth, unpolished youth.^[2]
• 1698–1702 – a surgeon's assistant at St Thomas's Hospital (obsolete).^[2]
• 1755 – verb, to bring forth cubs.^[2][18]
• 1875 – an apprentice or beginner, especially an apprentice steamboat pilot.^[2]
• 1922 – a junior Scout, a Cub Scout.^[2][7]
• 1926 – verb, to hunt fox cubs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The young of a fox, bear, lion, wolf or other carnivorous mammal; also a young shark or whale: a lioness with two cubs.^[4][10][2]
2. A young or inexperienced person, especially an awkward or ill-mannered boy.^[4][10][2]
3. An apprentice or beginner, as a cub reporter.^[4][2]
4. A Cub Scout.^[10][2]

Verb

1. Of a fox, bear or similar animal, to give birth to cubs.^[4][10][2]
2. To hunt fox cubs.^[4][2]

Word family

• cubbish
• cub reporter
• wolf cub

Related words

• cob
• whelp

Usage notes

A separate dialect word cub, a stall or pen for cattle, a coop or a crib for fodder, recorded from 1548, is probably from Low German; the verb from it, to shut up or confine, is now English dialect.^[2][16][4] In the dialects of the Midlands and the West of England it still meant a crib for cattle or a hutch for rabbits around 1900.^[19]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
16. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)