kobbe

• koab, koap, kaap

Uncertain. Perhaps referring to an animal with a thick, round body, in which probably from the same source as Old Norse kobbi (“seal”), which see. Compare English cob (“male swan”) and dialectal German Koppe (“crow”).^[1]

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kobbe f (plural kobben)

1. (Groningen, dialectal) European herring gull (Larus argentatus)

   Synonym: zilvermeeuw

• Matthias de Vries, Lambert Allard te Winkel (1864) “kobbe”, in Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, published 2001
• Kroonen, Guus (2011) The Proto-Germanic n-stems: A study in diachronic morphophonology, Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 285

Related to kubbe (“sawed-off tree trunk”) and Old Norse kúfóttr, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“hilltop, knoll”).

kobbe c

1. a low, rocky, rounded islet (skerry) (in a coastal archipelago)

   kobbar och skär

   islets and skerries

Rock might also be a sensible translation in some contexts. The typical size of a kobbe might vary regionally. "Kobbe" appears more often in the names of small islands in Åland and Finland, so perhaps they tend to be larger there.

• fjärd
• holme
• skär
• skärgård

• kobbe in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• kobbe in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• kobbe in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Middle Dutch coppe, from Old Dutch *kopp, from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“vault, round vessel, head”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve”). Compare Danish edderkop, Norwegian edderkopp, English coppe, Low German kobbe.

kobbe f

1. spider

• kobbenette