A cobbler repairs shoes while a cordwainer makes them — and "cobbler, stick to your last" traces to the Greek painter Apelles being told off by a shoemaker.
A person who repairs shoes. Also a type of baked dessert with fruit filling and a biscuit or pastry topping, and a type of cold drink.
The shoemaker sense is from Middle English cobelere, of uncertain origin, possibly related to cob (a rounded lump, knob). The dessert sense is American English, possibly from cobble (to put together roughly) Key roots: cobelere (Middle English: "shoe mender (uncertain deeper origin)").
The phrase "cobbler, stick to your last" (meaning stay within your expertise) comes from a story about the Greek painter Apelles, who accepted a cobbler's criticism of how he painted sandals but rejected the same man's critique of an anatomical detail — telling him "ne supra crepidam" (not above the sandal). A cobbler repairs shoes; a cordwainer makes new ones — the distinction mattered in medieval guild hierarchies. The American cobbler dessert (fruit with a rough pastry topping