cub – English noun declension

English noun forms of cub

Noun: cub
Singularcub
Pluralcubs

Sample Sentences

  • a Childe of Lacedemon suffered all his belly and gutts to be torne out by a Cubbe or young Foxe, which he had stolne, and kept close under his garment, rather then he would discover his theft. [1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 32, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:]
  • O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be / When time hath sowed a grizzle on thy case? [c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:]
  • He had also kept with him two wild young wives and several wilder cubs. [1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 118:]
  • [...] I would rather have such a good mother in cub or kennel, than in my closet, or at my table. [1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation XIII. Peter Leopold and President Du Paty.”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 193:]
  • Swain has interviewed 67 reporters on 16 metropolitan dailies in 10 cities — from cubs to veterans — who talk candidly […] [1978, The Journalism Quarterly, volume 55, page 652:]
  • […] from competing publications and the editors of publications that might buy freelance material from cubs. [2018, Randall S. Sumpter, Before Journalism Schools:]
  • Ew, I didn't know he also drew cub...
  • A man who reared ten cubs and three cutties. [1993, Ray Givans, No Surrender, Castlecaulfield, Lapwing Publications, →ISBN, page 14:]
  • The point of the example is educational, moral, and the moral qualities of the stories attracted Peter Flanagan who remembered them from childhood and told them to the cutties and cubs when he was, for them, a funny old man. [2016 September 12, Henry Glassie, The Stars of Ballymenone, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 229:]

Etymology

1. From earlier cubbe. Origin unknown. According to Pokorny, from Proto-Germanic *kubb-, from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object, knoll”), from *gew- (“to bend, curve, convex, arch, vault”). Related terms include cup (cf. cupboard), coffin, cove, etc, essentially “chamber”, thus cub maybe initially derived from the sense “den”, or maybe “womb”.
2. A probable cognate is also found in North Germanic: dialectal Swedish kubbe, kybbe, köbbe, kibb, Danish kippe (“calf”). Also compare Icelandic and Old Norse kobbi (“seal”), Old Irish cuib (“whelp”). Compare also English cob.
3. Originally, the meaning was specifically "young fox", in which sense it has largely replaced English whelp. See: Danish Nouns 'kippe', Old Norse Nouns 'kobbi', English Nouns 'cob'.