Dictionary

law of Hobson-Jobson en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined by Edward Ellis Morris; based on Hobson-Jobson.

Meanings

1. The process by which words or phrases borrowed between languages will be modified in their pronunciation as necessary to conform to the set of sounds used by the borrowing language.
   • Tommy-axe. A corruption of tomahawk: an instance of the law of Hobson-Jobson (q.v.). 1921, John Stephen Farmer, s.v. "Tommy-axe", A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English Slang and Its Analogues, page 482
   • Its variations show a familiar effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony with the language—an effort arising from what philologists call the law of Hobson-Jobson. [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 8, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 2, page 51:
   • In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the expression ‘the law of Hobson-Jobson.’ The name is an adaptation from the expression used by Col. Yule and Mr. Burnell as a name for their interesting Dictionary of Anglo-Indian words. The law is well recognised, though it has lacked a name, such as I now venture to give it. 1898, Edward Ellis Morris, Austral English, page xv:
   • Reckawackes, by the law of Hobson-Jobson, was turned into Rockaway, and Pentapang into Port Tobacco. [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 50, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 3, page 344: