cobswan

English

Etymology

From cob (“one who is eminent or great”) +‎ swan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒbswɒn/

Noun

cobswan (plural cobswans)

1. (obsolete, rare) A large swan.
   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act II:

     I'am not taken / With a Cob-Swan, or a high-mounting Bull / As fooliſh Leda and Europa were.

   • 1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the Second”, in Sordello, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 83:

     [T]here's plenty hint / Your pinions have received of late a shock— / Out-soar them, cobswan of the silver flock!

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “cobswan”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)