Of obscure origin. [Cf. FOB v.1
Can it be a corruption of OF. forbe (mod. fourbe) masc. rogue, fem. cunning trick? But this suggestion does not explain the apparent connection of fob sb. and v. with fop sb. and v., and Ger. foppen.)
† 1. A cheat, impostor. Obs. rare–1.
The association with faitour seems to require this active sense rather than the passive one of ‘dupe, fool’ (= 15th c. sense of fop). Cf. Ger. slang fopper, in 16th c. a malingerer esp. one who counterfeits madness (see Kluge, Etym. Wb., ed. 5), which is much the sense at faitour.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 192.
| Makeþ of lyer a lang cart · to lede alle þese oþere, | |
| As fobbes and faitours · þat on hure fet rennen. |
2. A trick, an artifice. Now only slang, To come the fob on (U.S.): to impose upon, cheat, trick.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 243. Many men would deale more honestly and plainly, than now they doe, if these fobs and gigs, were not put into their heads by others.
1654. trans. Scudery’s Curia Politiæ, 49. Such fobbs and cheats, are more tollerable … in persons of mean fortunes.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fob, a cheat, trick.
1852. Judson, Myst. N. York, I. vii. 62. S’pose he lose his rank, he come ze fob on some of ze nobilitie.
3. Comb.: † fob-action, a sham action (at law).
1673. F. Kirkman, Unlucky Cit., 203. They should then arrest you in a Fobb-action at his Suit.
1697. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 257. Yesterday a gentleman was committed to Newgate for endeavouring to steal a young lady worth 10,000l. by the help of bailifs, who arrested her and her maid in a fob action, and gott them into a coach, but they were rescued.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), s.v. A Fob (or sham) action.
