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one of my boys asked me about the word obnoxious today, which got me thinking about other "ob" words. obdurate, oblong, oblique. a quick check of OneLook and M-W gave a few variant ideas about the prefix "ob". no real question, I guess, but what other ob words come to mind, and have you other thoughts about ob? (I know, I could ob* at OneLook, but what's the fun in that with this obrudite crowd?) 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Not that I wish to obfuscate the obvious...
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As if such a useful word that means "to make unnecessary" could become old-fashioned! Traverse this oblate spheroid as you wish and you will find no finer word. Think not that I am obsequious towards this sparse organization of letters - it is not my master. My obduracy on its account is not due to servility, but to a genuine pleasure experienced as its syllables articulate sonorously from my lips and tongue. I accept gladly any obstreperous obloquy I endure for this oblation.
"Obviate" is nectar for my ears.
k
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Well that certainly obtunded MY response! Though there's always the obverse side.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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An obsidian obelisk erected
(Critiques being quite unexpected)
Was seen as too dark
And removed from the park
As soon as new mayor elected.
The Obelus has one pair of eyes
And all that it sees it divides
And yet if it feed
On infinitesimal seeds
The result is infinite size
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I'm not sure about your objective, eta, though I'm sure it's not objectionable, obviously. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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objectiveI guess it is a bit obtuse...
formerly known as etaoin...
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obtuse
But not obscene, I obtest. Please don't objurgate me with obloquy.
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Observe! I have maintained my obmutescence long enough!
Although I will likely gain no oblectation from this, I must
now resort to obscurantism deluxe in order to obtrude on this
continuing obtrectation. But, in order to obtund the
effects of my obvelation (to say nothing of my obvolution),
I will obstringe my remarks without further obreptitiousness.
-ron obvious
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oborus
Nothing Much Obtains: the title of my memoirs.
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The Czech language has many words pertaining to food and eating which begin with "ob" e.g.
obalovany meaning breaded
obcerstveni meaning a snack served with drinks
obed meaning lunch
obiad meaning dinner
obilne klicky meaning groats
obloha meaning garnished with vegetables
oblozena masova misa meaning cold cuts
oblozeny chleb meaning sandwich
As I speak/read not one word of Czech, I have no idea what sort of root (no pun intended) makes these words appear related.
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Czech
The common Slavic prefix o(b) 'toward, around, over, into, against; from, for, to, with' is related to Skt abhi 'to, in; beyond', Gk epi 'upon, at, on, over, after, before', Latin ob 'toward, on account of'.
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journeyman
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Did anyone else use "ob" talk as a kid? OB was added to words in front of any vowel...or was it after a consonant?
All I can think of is my name, and I'm not using that on line. I'm incognito.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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No, never used ob talk. I'm having a hard time grasping it. Can you give an example?
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Carpal Tunnel
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yeah, amnow, there's that whole "ubba-dubby" thing that middle school kids do. they do it on Zoom, the PBS kids show, but I couldn't find anything at their site... I always had a lot of trouble managing to make sense of it, though my wife and at least one of my boys does it quite easily. it's a sort of pig-latin, replacing the vowel sound with ub, or some such thing...  edit: from: http://www.cs101.org/ipij/interlude-stringXformers.htmlthis paragraph: When I was a child, we used to amuse ourselves by speaking to one another in a special language called Pig Latin. The simplest version of Pig Latin has just one rule: To turn an English word into a Pig Latin one, you take the first letter off the word, then add the first letter plus "ay" to the end of the word. So, for example, "Hello" in Pig Latin is "ello-Hay", and "How have you been?" is "ow-Hay ave-hay ou-yay een-bay?" There are more sophisticated rules for Pig Latin that deal with consonant blends and words that begin with vowels, but the basic idea remains the same. It turns out that there are children's games like Pig Latin in many, many languages, though each has a slightly different set of rules. Another such game, popularized by the children's Public Television show Zoom, is Ubby Dubby, in which you add "ubb" before every vowel (cluster): "Hubbellubbo", "Hubbow hubbave yubbou bubbeen?" (my italics)
formerly known as etaoin...
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Wow, I'm not nuts! Well, not much. Thanks, etaoin! I thought it was 'ob', but it's the same as 'ubb'. Language does change; and in the generations since I was 'speaking' ob, it's prolly grown and added a letter.
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addict
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what's the etymology of OBstetrics? Can't find in Bartleby..
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veteran
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what's the etymology of OBstetrics?
Well, obstetrix is a midwife, and there's a Late Latin backformed verb obstetrico 'to perform the office of a midwife, to assist in childbirth'. From ob- + sto 'to stand by'; cf. English bestead. Obstetrics and obstat are therefor cognate with one another. Obsto means 'to stand before or against (something), withstand, thwart, hinder, oppose'. A good example of how a form of the verb came to have almost an opposite meaning from hinder to help.
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addict
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My daughter loves Zoom, so I have become proficient in Ubby-Dubby. It's actually quite fun to speak, as long as you can get your tongue around the words. They actually have a translator at the Zoom website: http://pbskids.org/cgi-registry/zoom/ubbidubbi.cgi
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Carpal Tunnel
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thanks for that link, Dave! I guess it was all in the spelling...
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