the.com/cob
a corncob is technically a flower's grown-up skeleton, holding hundreds of failed pregnancies in rows
means A cob is the central woody core of an ear of corn that the kernels grow on, though the word also names a sturdy stocky horse, a male swan, a rounded lump (of coal or bread), and an old building material of clay and straw.
from An old English word of murky pedigree — 'cob' surfaces in Middle English meaning a rounded head, lump, or leading thing, and it may be related to the sense of 'top' or 'chief' (a cob was once a 'big man'). From that core idea of a stout, rounded, leading thing the meanings fanned out: the head of corn, the head of a household horse, the lump of clay-and-straw walling, the strong little horse. The shared thread is roundness and sturdiness, but the exact root is genuinely uncertain.
- silk count
- each silk strand connects to one potential kernel
- male swan
- a male swan is also called a cob
- building material
- cob houses of clay and straw stand centuries
- corn math
- ears almost always have an even row count
cob loaf — british round crusty bread roll, traditional pub staple across uk since medieval times
cob horse breed — sturdy welsh horse, 14.2 hands, used for riding and driving in wales and uk since 1800s
corn cob — woody center of corn ear, used as industrial abrasive and animal bedding in us agriculture