Hobson-Jobson
See also: hobson-jobson
English
WOTD – 8 September 2009
Alternative forms
Etymology
Coined in this sense by Yule and Burnell in their dictionary Hobson-Jobson. Special use of colonial British slang Hobson-Jobson, any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram, derived from adapting the call Hassan! Hussein! (حسن حسين (ḥasan! ḥusayn!), a lament for the grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad) to Hobson and Jobson, a pair of comic figures popular in the nineteenth century. [1][2]
Pronunciation
Noun
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Hobson-Jobson (plural Hobson-Jobsons)
- A word or phrase borrowed by one language from another and modified in pronunciation to fit the set of sounds the borrowing language typically uses.
- 1977, Robert H. Stacy, Defamiliarization in Language and Literature, page 51:
- If the French for pun, calembour, derives (as Spitzer maintained) from "conundrum"; this points up well the at first puzzling effect of such devices. Caran d'Ache is in fact an intentional hobson-jobson.
- 2003, Jan Venolia, The Right Word!, page 4:
- A Hobson-Jobson turns a difficult word or phrase into something more tractable (or perhaps less offensive). By that route, a Texas river that French trappers had named Purgatoire became the Picketwire, and the Malay word kampong became the English word compound.
- 1977, Robert H. Stacy, Defamiliarization in Language and Literature, page 51:
- (Britain, slang, archaic) Any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram.
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
borrowed word or phrase with altered pronunciation
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References
- T. Nagle (2010), “'There is Much, Very Much, in the Name of a Book' or, the Famous Title of Hobson-Jobson and How it Got that Way”, in 'Cunning Passages, Contrived Corridors': Unexpected Essays in the History of Lexicography, Monza: Polimetrica, →ISBN, page 111–128
- James Lambert (2014), “A much tortured expression: A new look at Hobson-Jobson.”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, issue 1, page 54-88
Further reading
- Yule, Henry, Sir. Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. edited by William Crooke, B.A. London: J. Murray, 1903. A part of the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia.
- Full text of Hobson-Jobson, 2nd edition, at Wikisource
- Full text of Hobson-Jobson, 2nd edition, at Google Books
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