gob - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
gob, gub n The mouth. Cf gab. [of obscure origin, possibly from Irish gob or Scottish Gaelic gob/guib ‘beak, bill of a bird; mouth’; oed gob n2 ‘the mouth’ c1550→, northern dialect; dost gob n ‘the mouth; the beak of a bird’, early 16th century→]
Ulst.:
1904 Byers Sayings of Ulster 32 ‘Gob’ is used in two senses, first as meaning the mouth (we have also the dialect ‘gab’ derived from the Gaelic ‘gob’ = the beak or bill of a bird, the mouth, this is the Irish ‘gob’, ‘gab’, ‘cab’ = the beak, snout, mouth, and with these may be compared the Welsh ‘gwp’ = the head and neck of a bird. Hence, instead of saying, ‘hold your tongue’, or ‘shut your mouth’, the phrase in Ulster often is ‘shut up your gub’ (another variant of ‘gob’). It is said by some that ‘gab’ (derived from the old English ‘gabben’) = to talk idly, is connected with the Celtic ‘gob’ (a good talker has the ‘gift of the gab’) and ‘give me none of yer (your) gab’ (variants, ‘back-chat’, ‘lip’, ‘jaw’), heard sometimes in County Down and County Antrim, means, ‘give me no impudence’. Probably ‘gabble’ and ‘jabber’ are connected with ‘gab’. ‘Gab’ is also used in the North of England and in Scotland as meaning the mouth, and hence the old proverb: ‘Ye take mair (more) in your gab than your cheeks can had’ (hold), which has been modernised by our Transatlantic cousins into the well-known saying: ’You have bitten off more tobacco than you can well chew’. ‘Gob’ has also a second meaning, which is a ‘mouthful’.
1932 Quinn McConaghy’s Money 45 He hit a detective with a snowball—aye, fair in the gub.
1939 Paterson Country Cracks 90 Divil the blade wud they let in their gubs.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 124 = the mouth, a beak, snout.
c1955 Montgomery Heard in Ulster 52 Close yer gob.
U.S.:
1912 White Word-list Cent NY 567 Open your gob!
1967 Cerello Dakota Co 61 He had a gob full of feed and nevertheless he kept right on talking.
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)
