Definition:
In linguistics, the alteration of a word in one language when used by speakers of another language.
See also:
Etymology:
Anglo-Indian adaptation of a Muslim phrase, "Ya Hasan! Ya Husain!"Examples and Observations:
- "There are thousands of [Anglo-Indian] examples: 'chapati' entered the English language as 'chowpatty' . . .; the Indian plant 'kawanch' became 'cowage'; the fish 'kapap' became 'cock-up'; 'basi khana,' stale food or yesterday's dinner warmed up, became 'brass-knocker'; 'bringal'--aubergine--became 'brown jolly' and 'cholera morbus' in Anglo-Indian became 'Corporal Forbes.'
"Hobson-Jobsonisms take us back to the 'new' words that English captured in India. An alphabetical sampling could read: 'amok,' 'ashram,' 'avatar,' 'bandanna,' 'bangle,' 'caddy,' 'calico,' 'candy,' 'cashmere,' 'cheetah,' 'coolie,' 'cowrie,' 'cushy,' 'dinghy,' 'doolally,' 'guru,' 'Himalayan,' 'juggernaut,' 'jungle,' 'karma,' 'khaki,' 'lilac,' 'mantra,' 'mongoose,' 'panda,' 'pariah,' 'purdah,' 'rattan,' 'sacred cow,' 'seersucker,' 'Sherpa,' 'Tantra,' 'thug,' 'yoga.'"
(Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English. Hoder & Stoughton, 2003) - "The inability to pronounce a word created so many new words that it earned its own label: 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 kampkong became the English word compound. The term Hobson-Jobson is itself a Hobson-Jobson, an alteration of the Arabic ritual cry of mourning for Husan and Husein, Muhammed's grandsons who were killed in battle."
(Jan Venolia, The Right Word!: How to Say What You Really Mean. Ten Speed Press, 2003) - "[T]here has probably never been in the colonial history of English such intensive, prolonged contact with largely unintelligible languages of some status as there was in 19th-century India. Some of the resulting misunderstandings of Indian terms were derogatory, some facetious, and some probably neutral--but almost all have gone with the culture that bred them. The phenomenon became more widely known as hobson-jobson from the title of Yule-Burnell's dictionary (1886) (which contains only a small proportion of such words promised in the title); the underlying attitudes are comparable with those towards Chinese pidgin, or 19th-century AusE--a mixture of amusement and contempt. While in cases like college pheasant (< kalij) the word may just have been misheard, it is obvious that Isle-o'-Bats for Allahabad was intended as a witticism. Cow-itch is defined as 'the irritating hairs on the pod of the [. . .] climbing herb [. . .] and the plant itself' and explained: doubtless the Hindi Kewanch, modified in Hobson-Jobson fashion, by the 'striving after meaning.' (Also cf. dumbcow, godown 'warehouse')."
(Manfred Görlach, More Englishes: New Studies in Varieties of English, 1988-1994. John Benjamins, 1995)
Also Known As: Law of Hobson-Jobson
