Meaning of Hobson-Jobson | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram.
   countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
2. Alternative letter-case form of Hobson-Jobson.
   alt-of, countable, uncountable
3. The assimilation of borrowed lexis, either partial or whole, to word forms of the borrowing language.
   uncountable
4. 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.
   countable

Equivalents

Examples

“‘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.’”

“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.”

“Falaun, s. […] gradually, by a process of Hobson-Jobson, this was turned into Forlorn.”

“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.”

“CARAFT, here is a delicious Hobson-Jobson from that veritable well of curious Anglo-Indianisms, the Madras Manual of Administration[.]”

“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.”

“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.”

CEFR level