| 词源 |
gob. The U.S. Navy banned the use of gob for a sailor in the early 1920s, claiming it was undignified. Like most such com- stockery, the ban on gob failed, but the navy might have been right about its lack of dignity, considering the word’s possible origins. Gob, first recorded in 1909, probably comes either from gobble, an allusion to the way many sailors reputedly ate, or from the word gob, for “spit,” in reference to English coast guardsmen who were called gobbies in the past because they were in the habit of expectorating so much. Little better is the suggestion that the word is from the Irish gob, “mouth,” as in the expression shut your gob. Sailors might then have been compared to “big mouths” or something similar. |