zob

Claimed by Swedish scholar Jan Ivarsson (quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang) to derive from French zob (“dick, cock”), itself from Arabic زُبّ (zubb).^[1]

zob (plural zobs)

1. (US, slang, derogatory, dated) A good-for-nothing person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:worthless person

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, section III, pages 415–416:

     And the same thing goes for that crowd of crabs and snobs Down East, and next time you hear some zob from Yahooville-on-the-Hudson chewing the rag and bulling and trying to get your goat tell him that no two-fisted enterprising Westerner would have New York for a gift!

• BZO, Boz

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zobъ.

• IPA^(key): [ˈzop]
• Rhymes: -op

zob m inan

1. bird food

   Dali jsme ptákům do krmítka ptačí zob. ― We put some bird food into a feeder.

2. (rare, dated) beak

   Synonym: zobák

• “zob”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “zob”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “zob”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Borrowed from Arabic زُبّ (zubb).

• IPA^(key): /zɔb/

zob m (plural zobs)

1. (slang) dick, cock (penis)

• “zob”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zobь.

• IPA^(key): /zôːb/

zȏb f (Cyrillic spelling зо̑б)

1. oat

   Synonym: ovas

• “zob”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

zob m inan

1. privet (plant, Ligustrum vulgare) - zob vtáčí
2. bird food

• IPA^(key): /zóːp/

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zǫbъ.

zọ̑b m inan

1. tooth; cog

   modrostni zob ― wisdom tooth

   mlečni zobje ― baby teeth

   Zob me boli. ― I have a toothache.

   podarjenemu konju se ne gleda v zobe ― don't look a gift horse in the mouth

   oko za oko, zob za zob ― an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zobь.

zọ̑b f

1. oats; fodder (food for horses and other animals)

• “zob”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “zob”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references