Word of the Day

: February 19, 2011

cabbage

verb KAB-ij

What It Means

: steal, filch

cabbage in Context

In the late 18th-century play The Reconciliation, Mrs. Grim confesses that she "now and then cabbaged a penny."

"He cabbaged parts from sources that ranged from an old washing machine wringer to the cam shaft from a six-cylinder Chevrolet engine." -- From an article by Larry Porter in the Omaha World-Herald, March 20, 2005

Did You Know?

Does the "filching" meaning of "cabbage" bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you're in for a surprise. Today's featured word has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments. The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun "cabbage," which meant "pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites." Both of those ethically questionable "cabbages" probably derived from "cabas," the Middle French word for "cheating or theft." The "cabbage" found in cole slaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English "caboche," which means "head."