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cub

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)