# cobbler

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320 "2000-11-08T16:06:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jujyfruit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jujyfruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jujyfruit)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320/1 "2000-11-08T16:06:28Z")

</div>

recently, i was having an argument with a friend about where we got the name for cobbler desserts. i maintain that it could be possible that somebody who made a cobbler thought it looked like a cobblestone street (bumpy and all) and named it a cobbler. my friend believes that the person who invented cobbler was named cobbler. or maybe it has something to do with shoes. if anybody knows, help!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320/2 "2000-11-08T18:21:40Z")

</div>

Total WAG here. One definition of “cobble” is “to throw together hastily,” so my guess is that when there wasn’t enough time to produce a pie or some more elaborate dessert, a cook could still “cobble together” a tasty confection of fruit and pastry - perhaps when the boss was unexpectedly brought home for dinner.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320/3 "2000-11-08T18:40:18Z")

</div>

Actually, it was those same bumpy streets being used by bakery wagons to deliver more well-formed confections which were tossed together enroute and mixed up, resulting in “a load of old cobblers” …

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320/4 "2000-11-08T18:54:23Z")

</div>

I don’t know about the American dessert, but “cobblers”, as in “a load of old …” is rhyming slang: cobbler’s awls = balls.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cobbler/40320/5 "2000-11-08T19:21:43Z")

</div>

And then there’s the story of the lady policeman describing how she caught the burglar:

“I chased him past the grocer’s, and the butcher’s and the baker’s - and I finally caught him by the cobblers!”