The Stob Garden: One Month's Difference

Thursday, October 10, 2013

One Month's Difference

North by northeast, one month ago today.

North by northeast today.

South by southwest, one month ago today.

South by southwest today.

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Stob

n. Chiefly Southern U.S.

A short straight piece of wood, such as a stake.

[Middle English, stump, variant of stubbe, stub; see stub.]

Regional Note: The Southern word stob means a short straight stick of wood: "Jim Rozier's skill with a piece of iron and a hardwood stob sets up a vibration in the earth that Sopchoppy worms find extremely disagreeable" (Charles Kuralt). Related to stub and stubby, stob is one of numerous Indo-European cognates, for example, Greek stupos,meaning "stump (of a tree or branch)." In Middle English stob seems to have been a variant spelling of stub, with one of its meanings being "the amputated stump of a human limb." However, the word has chiefly denoted a short piece of wood, such as "a small post or stake or stump of a shrub, [and is] commonly so used in many, if not all, parts of the [American] South" (Charles F. Smith).

Thursday, October 10, 2013

One Month's Difference

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