Cobblestones

[GirGirl]

Why are cobblestones called cobblestones?
Fanks
xx

[Quizmonster]

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology is (quote) 'obscure' and according to Chambers Dictionary it is (quote) 'dubious'...so the truth is "nobody knows"!

[smudge]

I can't better QM's explanations - but can only add:

Cobbles: Stones in various forms. 

[jno]

American Heritage Dictionary says it's from cob, an old word for head (so something rounded):

http://www.bartleby.com/61/89/C0438900.html

[GirGirl]

Ah well...Fanks anyway poppets!
x

[Octavius]

Cobblestones, used in the pavement of early streets were smooth stones usually taken from riverbeds and 'cobbled' (roughly assembled) together with mortar.

In geology, a cobble is a rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded.

The word 'cob' stems from the Middle English cobelston : obsolete cobel, probably diminutive of cob, round object.

[brionon]

GIRL, here's an opportunity, decide for us. My idea is that  it's a corruption of the word 'Couple' because you never see only one.

[Quizmonster]

Take it from me...if the scholars at 'TOED' have failed to find a convincing answer, it's because there isn't one!

[jno]

errr... with all respect Quizmonster, there is an answer - unless it was deliberately invented (as 'quiz' itself is sometimes said to have been), cobblestones does come from somewhere - it's just that the OED doesn't know what it is. But you might find it in a 14th-century manuscript tomorrow.

[GirGirl]

BRIONON: Errrr...depends on how hard you squint?
:)

x

[Quizmonster]

By the same token, Jno, it may well emerge one day that someone wrote a speech that opens: "To be or not to be, that is the question..." in 1483. However, until we do discover such a document, we'll have to go on believing Shakespeare was first to do so around 1600!

The point about my statement  that there "isn't" a clear etymology - see my opening response above and the key words 'obscure' and 'dubious' - is just that...there isn't a clear etymology..."is" being a present tense verb. That in no way precludes there being a future tense possibility which is different.