▪ I. coble1
(ˈkəʊb(ə)l)
Forms: 1 cuopl, 5 kobil, cobyll, 5–6 cobill, 7–9 cobble, 4– coble.
[ONorthumbrian cuopl appears to have no Teut. cognates; cf. Welsh ceubal, ceubol ferry-boat, skiff, lighter (prob.:—OWelsh *caupol), Bret. caubal, which Silvan Evans identifies with Lat. caupulus, -ilus, described by Isidore (Orig. xix. i. 25) as ‘lembus, navicula brevis, quæ alia appellatione dicitur et cymba et caupolus (v.r. caupilus, -ulus)’. The word may be native in Celtic, and may contain the root ceu-, cau- hollow. The ONorth. form, if correct, is not the direct parent of the present.]
1. Sc. A short flat-bottomed rowing-boat used in salmon-fishing and for crossing rivers or lakes. [In south Scotl. often pronounced cowble (ˈkobl).]
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. viii. 23 He astaᵹ in lytlum scipe vel in cuople. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Ninian 504 Ane olde coble þare he fand, Þat mony hoilis in it had. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxviii. 115 A lytil kobil thare thai mete And had thame oure, but langere lete. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 146 Dongallus..come to the watter of Spey, and gat ane cobill to pas ouir the samin. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 33 The salmon fishers rowed cobles with nets to catch it. 1875 Buckland Log-bk. 346, I went out in Mr. Miller's Salmon Coble. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 41 We took a short row on it [the lake] in a ‘coble’ rowed by the head keeper. |
2. A sea fishing-boat with a flat bottom, square stern, and rudder extending 4 or 5 feet below the bottom, rowed with three pairs of oars, and furnished with a lug-sail; used chiefly on the N.E. coast of England.
| 1493 Newminster Cartul. (Surtees) 195 A cobyll w{suph} ij oyres. 1527 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 237 To the said Edmunde a coble called the Margarete. 1565 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) 246, I will that my wyffe shall haiue the best sea coble in hir custodye. 1667 Lond. Gaz. No. 194/4 This morning a Cobble, laden with Herrings..was unfortunately cast away. 1791–9 Statist. Acc., Haddingt. VII. 407 (Jam.) The fishers on this coast use two kinds of boats, the largest, called cobles, are different from the fishing-boats generally used, being remarkably flat in the bottom, and of a great length, measuring about 30 feet in keel. 1845 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 122 Embarking in a small coble, [they] were soon wafted across the tideway. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as coble-boat, coble-man, coble-race.
| 1490 in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. I. 133 To the cobill man of Cambuskynnell quhen the King past owre—vs. 1614 Markham Way to Wealth in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 242 The fishermen, mackarel-catchers, nor the Cobble⁓men of the north-country. 1665 Lond. (Oxford) Gaz. No. 18/4 (Newcastle) Three Coble-boats fishing. 1863 Ridley's Local Song-bk. 3 He rowed a coble race..doon at Blyth. 1866 Hon. Mrs. Norton in Macm. Mag. XIII. 181/2 Gliding over its silver surface in the coble-boat fishing for trout and waking the echoes as they rowed home. |
▪ II. coble2
Variant of cable: kobel is given as a common pronunciation of kabel in Flemish.
(See Ligart Dict. of Walloon (Mons) s.v. combiau.)
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 742 Ffrekes one þe forestayne, fakene þeire coblez In floynes, and fercestez, and Flemesche schyppes. |
▪ III. coble, cobler etc.,
obs. ff. cobble, cobbler.