Back in the twenties the U.S. Navy banned the use of gob for a sailor, claiming it was undignified. Like most such Comstockery, the ban on gob failed, but the Navy might have been right about uts dignity, considering the word’s possible origins. Gob, first recorded in 1909, probably comes from either gobble, an allusion to the way many sailors were reputed to eat. Or from the word gob for spit, in reference to English coast guardsmen who were called gobbies in the past because they were in the habit of expectorating so much. Little better is the suggestion that the word is from the Irish gob, “mouth,” as in the expression shut your gob. Sailors might then have been compared to “big mouths” or something similar.