Dictionary

Hobson-Jobson en · NOUN

Pronunciation

(Australia) audio
/ˌhɒb.sənˈdʒɒb.sən/ (UK)
/ˌhɑb.sənˈdʒɑb.sən/ (US)

Etymology

Derived from adapting the call Hassan! Hussein! (حَسَن حُسَيْن (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. Note that the conventional derivation from "Ya Hassan! Ya Hussein!" is incorrect. Coined in the linguistic sense by Yule and Burnell in their dictionary Hobson-Jobson.

Meanings

(countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) Any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram.
- The dusky sons of Mohammed have been having a high old time down at the British India Company’s wharves during the past few days. [. . .] It was the great week of ‘Hobson-Jobson,’ as it is known out East, or the time of the Mohurram. 1903 April 8, Queensland Figaro, Brisbane, page 23, column 2:
- ‘You must be moped to death in this dull place; and next week is Hobson Jobson. Can’t you throw some dust any how, in the eyes of the cat, and meet me and Philip somewhere, and so get away to the Tamacha.’ 1851, Jamie Gordon, page 85:
(uncountable) The assimilation of borrowed lexes, either partial or whole, to word forms of the borrowing language.
- Learned persons, especially those who know all about ‘Volksetymologie,’ whether under that imposing name, or more familiarly as ‘Hobson-Jobson,’ are advised to pass on to the next question. 1909 February 20, The Argus, Melbourne, page 6, column 4:
- Falaun, s. […] gradually, by a process of Hobson-Jobson, this was turned into Forlorn. 1886, Henry Yule, A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, page 265:
(countable) 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.
- 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. 1977, Robert H. Stacy, Defamiliarization in Language and Literature, page 51:
- CARAFT, here is a delicious Hobson-Jobson from that veritable well of curious Anglo-Indianisms, the Madras Manual of Administration[.] 1899 June 14, Indian Antiquary, page 161, column 2:
- 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. 2003, Jan Venolia, The Right Word!, page 4: