Sky's introduction of 'mob' into the lexicon

[Grotug]

The second one down on this search page dates back to January 27, 2020

https://www.doomworld.com/search/?q=...rch_and_or=and

This example isn't as strong as the 'romero on a stick' one but you can swap out 'mob' with 'monster' to get the meaning of the post; and check out the date, this one dates all the way back to October, 2015:


On 10/8/2015 at 12:09 AM, ArmouredBlood said:

For me, minimum 400 mobs (or 10+ cyberdemons), rocket launcher and/or bfg (sometimes plasma, though it's a little weak for multiple mid-tier mobs) are mainstays of the map, and situations where you must move constantly or near constantly to not get plastered with projectiles.

As far as that doom radio interview, I'll throw my hat out, though I haven't been too involved in doom the last year or two.

ArmouredBlood doesn't mean 400 groups of monsters, they mean 400 monsters. That's how mob's meaning makes the jump from 'a group of monsters' to 'monster's. But 'mob' here doesn't mean 'monsters' it means 'monster', because the modifier '400' is pluralizing the singular 'monster'. It's still talking about a group, but the meaning has changed from "a group of monsters" to mean just 'monster's (400 of them). Then people pick up on that slight change and go ahead and use 'mob' to mean an actual single monster (as we saw with Romero's head on a stick), since you can just swap out 'mob' with 'monster' in the sentence that ends "400 mobs." Very interesting evolution of the word mob. And simple enough for some rando like me to spot it!