tag:dreamwidth.org,2012-02-06:1488884radondoranradondoranradondoran2013-01-27T16:00:18Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2012-02-06:1488884:487"Look, You Cobber...": Semantic and Statistical Notes on Bigman Jones's Favorite Epithet2013-01-27T07:28:06Z2013-01-27T16:00:18Znerdypublic0<blockquote><i>"To Sun-center with the Sirian cobbers!"</i></blockquote>Isaac Asimov's <em>Lucky Starr</em> series has all kinds of fun things going on with the dialogue. Probably a good deal of this arises from the fact that it's a kids' series, and so the characters weren't even free to use the mild <em>damn</em> and <em>hell</em> that show up in the Robot stories. That, coupled with the fact that the series takes place in a spacefaring society circa the year 6945, means that the dialogue is absolutely packed with fictional slang.<br /><br />Most of the fictional slang is classic Asimovian astronomical future slang: "Great Galaxy!", "what in space", "Mars-forsaken". But there's one prominent word that shows up in the series that doesn't arise from outer space, and does not to my knowledge usually show up in real twentieth-century American English either. This word is <em>cobber</em>, the insulting noun used by Lucky Starr's Martian sidekick John Bigman Jones.<br /><br />This post will go over some observations about possible real-world origins of <em>cobber</em>, and some analysis of Bigman's use of the term in the books.<br /><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://radondoran.dreamwidth.org/487.html#cutid1">So what is a cobber, anyway?</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://radondoran.dreamwidth.org/487.html#cutid2">And how does Bigman use the word?</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />---<br /><br />Um, yeah, so anyway, that's about everything I've discovered about the word <em>cobber</em>. If anybody's reading this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the word, or about ridiculously specific linguistic elements from your own fandoms, or whatever!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=radondoran&ditemid=487" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments