lob

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lob, also lobbe and lobī.^[2] The OED thinks it perhaps onomatopoeic: several Germanic words of similar sound express something heavy, clumsy or loosely hanging, such as East Frisian Low German lobbe (“hanging lump of flesh”), Middle Low German lobbe (“hanging lip”), Dutch lob and lubbe (“hanging lip, ruffle, hanging sleeve”), and Norwegian lubb (“short stout person”).^[3][4][5] The American Heritage Dictionary and Klein also call it probably imitative.^[6][7] The Middle English Dictionary, Barnhart and Etymonline take it from an unrecorded Old English word,^[2][8][4] while Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster Unabridged think it of Low German or Dutch origin.^[9][10][11] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compare Old English lobbe (“spider”).^[4][11] It is found in the surname Lobb from 1291.^[8][2] The verb is from the noun,^[3][12][6] and the noun for a lobbed ball is from the verb.^[3][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pollack, a sea fish: 1321, in a document listing a thousand lobbes;^[2] the OED's first record is a statute of 1357,^[3] and Etymonline dates this sense to the early 14th century.^[4] The sense "lazy lout" is in Piers Plowman (before 1376).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline calls it a word applied widely to lumpish things or things suggesting heaviness, hanging or floppiness.^[4] After the fish and the lout, the noun meant a country bumpkin (1533), and was used as an adjective for rustic or clumsy from 1508.^[3][8] Shakespeare's "thou lob of spirits" is the example Johnson (1755) gave for a heavy, clumsy or sluggish person, together with Lob's pound, a prison, from Butler's Hudibras.^[13] From 1688 it meant something pendulous, such as the wattles of a fowl, and in 19th-century dialect a lump or a large amount.^[3][14] The verb first meant to behave like a lout (1596) and to let hang heavily, as in Henry V (1599), where tired horses lob down their heads.^[3][11][8] From 1819 it meant to move heavily or clumsily, and Barnhart suggests that the throwing sense grew from these earlier meanings.^[3][8] In bowling it meant to throw slowly or gently by 1824, according to Etymonline;^[4] the OED dates the sense "to throw or toss with a slow movement" to 1847, in Halliwell's dictionary of provincial words,^[3][8] and in dialect it was to throw underhand.^[14] It was used of artillery shells from 1869 and of tennis strokes from 1875.^[4] The noun for a slow underhand ball in cricket is recorded from 1851,^[3][11] and for a high ball in tennis from 1875.^[4][8] In slang lob has been an informer (1833), the penis (1896) and a small sum of money,^[15] and in Australian slang to lob in is to arrive (1916).^[3] Since 1952 a question or remark, often an easy one, can be lobbed at someone.^[3]

Timeline

• 1321 – the pollack (obsolete by 1769).^[2][3]
• before 1376 – a lazy lout.^[2][8]
• 1508 – adjective, rustic, loutish.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun for a dull, heavy person to the same year.^[11]
• 1533 – a country bumpkin.^[3]
• 1596 – verb, to behave like a lout (obsolete).^[3]
• 1599 – verb, to let hang heavily, in Shakespeare's Henry V.^[11][8]
• 1688 – something pendulous.^[3]
• 1819 – verb, to move heavily or clumsily.^[3][8]
• 1824 – verb, to throw slowly or gently, in bowling.^[4]
• 1825 – a lump, a large piece.^[3]
• 1839 – a thick mixture used in brewing.^[3][4]
• 1851 – noun, a slow underhand ball in cricket.^[3][11]
• 1869 – verb, to send up in a high arc, of artillery shells.^[4]
• 1875 – of tennis strokes, the verb and the noun.^[4][8]
• 1916 – Australian slang, lob in, to arrive.^[3]
• 1952 – to toss a question or remark at someone.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw, hit or kick something slowly in a high arc: She lobbed the keys up to the balcony.^[16][11][3]
2. In tennis or soccer, to hit or kick the ball high over an opponent.^[16][11][3]
3. In cricket, to bowl a ball underhand, usually slowly.^[11][16]
4. To put a question or remark to someone, often an easy one.^[3]
5. (Australian slang) lob in: to arrive.^[3]
6. (archaic) To let hang heavily; to droop.^[11][3]

Noun

1. A ball hit, kicked or thrown in a high arc, especially in tennis.^[16][11][3]
2. In cricket, a ball bowled slowly underhand.^[16][11][3]
3. (dialect) A dull, clumsy person; a lout or bumpkin.^{[11][3][14][13]}
4. (dialect) A lump or a large amount.^[11][3][14]
5. (archaic) Something that hangs loosely.^[11][3]
6. (obsolete, 1357–1769) The pollack.^[3][2][10]

Word family

• lobber

Related words

• lubber
• looby
• loblolly
• lop
• slobber

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford treat as separate words of unknown origin lob, a step in a mine or a vein of ore descending in steps (from 1681), and the criminals' slang lob, a box or till (from 1718), which the OED thinks probably expressive of a heavy object.^[3][10][11] The OED also has an Old English lobbe, a spider, used until 1325, which Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compare with this word.^[3][4][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d 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)
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins