Hobson-Jobsonn.
Anglo-Indian.
1. Anglicized form of the repeated wailings and cries of Muslims as they beat their breasts in the Muharram procession; hence this festal ceremony. Also transferred.Hasan and Husain, grandsons of Muhammad, were killed while fighting for the faith.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > cry or shout (loudness) > cry of emotion or pain > [noun] > wail or howl > in muharram procession
Hobson-Jobson1634
society > faith > worship > liturgical year > feast, festival > other seasons and feasts > Muslim > [noun] > Muharran
Hobson-Jobson1634
Muharrama1827
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 167 I haue seene them nine seuerall dayes..in the streets all together crying out Hussan, Hussan.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 108 The Moors solemnize the Exequies of Hosseen Gosseen.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 357 That Liberty, which was chiefly used in their Hossy Gossy.
1773 E. Ives Voy. India i. ii. 28 Their Hassan Hassan, in memory of the two sons of Ali by Fatima (Mahomet's daughter) being killed in one day fighting for the faith.
1817 T. S. Raffles Hist. Java II. 4 The ceremony of húsen hásen..here passes by almost without notice.
1829 Oriental Sporting Mag. (1873) I. 129/2 The folks makes sich a noise..shouting Hobson Jobson, Hobson Jobson.
1861 J. T. Wheeler Madras in Olden Time II. xxxii. 347 The Mussulman feast called ‘Hossein Jossen’.
1935 M. E. Houtzager Unconscious Sound- & Sense-Assimilations ii. 52 Hobson-Jobson, suggestive of a proper name, is the name of a native festal excitement.
2.
a. Used as the title of a famous collection of Anglo-Indian words.
ΚΠ
1886 H. Yule & A. C. Burnell (title) Hobson-Jobson, a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms.
b. the law of Hobson-Jobson: a phrase sometimes used of the process of adapting a foreign word to the sound-system of the adopting language.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > sound changes > [noun] > rule or law > specific
Grimm's law1838
Verner's law1878
Grassmann's Law1886
Lachmann's law1889
the law of Hobson-Jobson1898
Sievers1934
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 287/2 The name of the shell is a corruption of this word, by the law of Hobson-Jobson.
1919 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. 41 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.
Derivatives
ˌHobson-ˈJobsonism n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > use or formation of new words or phrases > [noun] > word or phrase borrowed from other language > naturalized
denizen1578
Hobson-Jobsonism1934
replica1956
1934 S.P.E. Tract (Soc. for Pure Eng.) No. XLI. 21 There are the words (‘Hobson-Jobsonisms’) where the original [sc. Indian] form has been more or less modified in the process of Anglicization.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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