| 释义 |
hobbledehoy, hobbadehoy, hobbedehoy colloq.|ˈhɒb(ə)ldɪˌhɔɪ, ˈhɒbə-, ˈhɒbɪ-|
Forms: α. 6 hobledehoye, 8–9 hobble-de-hoy, hobblede-, 9 hobbledyhoy; 8–9 hob(b)letehoy, hobblety-hoy. β. 6 hobbard de hoy, habber de hoy, 7 hab(b)erdehoy, hoberdihoye, hobberdy-hoy, hober-de-hoy(e, hubber de hoy, 9 hobberdehoy. γ. 7 hobet-a-hoy, hobodyhoye, 8 hobedihoy, hobby de hoy, 8–9 hobbydehoy, 9 hobby-de-hoy, hobide-, hobada-, hobbydy-, hobbade-, hobbady-, hobbede-, hobbedyhoy, hobbety-, hobbity-hoy.
[A colloquial word of unsettled form and uncertain origin. One instance in hoble- occurs in 1540; otherwise hober-, hobber-, are the prevailing forms before 1700; these, with the forms in hobe-, hobby-, suggest that the word is analogous in structure to Hoberdidance, Hobbididance, and hobidy-booby, q.v.: cf. also hoberd. Some of the variants are evidently due to the effort of popular etymology to put some sense into an odd and absurd-looking word. It is now perh. most frequently associated with hobble, and taken to have ludicrous reference to an awkward and clumsy gait.
The word has been often discussed: see Ray, Jamieson, Forby, Skeat (in Philol. Trans. 1885–6, 302). The form has naturally suggested a French origin. Jamieson held that ‘hoberdehoy has been undoubtedly borrowed from the French’, and suggested, for first part, F. hobereau, hobreau hobby (the hawk), also ‘petit gentilhomme campagnard’ (Littré), according to Dict. Trévoux, ‘also applied to those who are apprentices or novices in the world’. But no confirmatory evidence has been found in French or even in Anglo-French.]
1. A youth at the age between boyhood and manhood, a stripling; esp. a clumsy or awkward youth.
α1540[see c. below]. 1723Steele Consc. Lovers iii. i, I was then a Hobble-de-hoy, and you a pretty little tight Girl. 1738Swift Pol. Convers. i. Wks. 1766 XI. 158 Why he's a mere hobbledehoy, neither a man nor a boy. 1821Blackw. Mag. X. 571/1 The squire and his good lady..followed by a dozen hoydens and hobbletehoys. 1841L. Hunt Seer (1864) 11, I was then a little hobble-de-hoy. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. v. 172 Her awkward hobbledehoy of a son offends against the proprieties. 1891Pall Mall G. 25 June 3/1 There is nowadays an immense public of hobbledehoys—of all ages— and there are even men of culture and critical capacity who take a perverse pleasure in affecting hobbledehoyhood.
β1573Tusser Husb. lx. (1878) 138 The first seuen yeers bring vp as a childe, The next to learning, for waxing too wilde. The next keepe vnder sir hobbard de hoy, The next a man no longer a boy. 1611J. Davies Sco. Folly Wks. 1878 II. 32/2 Peace lowing cow-babe, lubberly-hobberdy-hoy. 1637Brian Pisse-Proph. (1679) 48 His Hubber de hoy, which is his man-boy, or half a man, and half a boy. 1648Hexham Dutch Dict., Een jong manneken, a young Boy, a Habberdehoy, or a Stripling.
γ1638Ford Fancies iv. i. Wks. 1869 II. 293 This gelded hobet-a-hoy is a corrupted pander. 1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. VI. i. 149 What we call in the Country a Hobby de Hoy, between a Man and a Boy. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hobidehoy, a lad approaching to manhood. 1828Craven Dial., Hobbity-Hoy. 1863M. E. Braddon Eleanor's Vict. I. x. 193 A gaunt, long-legged hobadahoy of eighteen.
b. transf. (In quot. 1702, ? a mongrel or nondescript affair.)
1678T. Jones Heart & Right Sov. 118 Some ho-body hoyes, and no right sons of the one church or of the other. 1702Secret Mercury 9 Sept. in Hone Every-day Bk. (1826) I. 1240 Enter a hobletehoy of a dance, and Dogget, in old woman's petticoats and red waistcoat. 1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. Roast Pig, Things between pig and pork—those hobby de hoys. 1861C. Boner Forest Creatures 12 They [young wild boars] are either the babes and sucklings of the present or the hobberdehoys of the last year.
c. attrib.
1540Palsgrave tr. Fullonius' Acolastus i. i, Theyr hobledehoye tyme..the yeres that one is neyther a man nor a boye. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs I, Mrs. Chuff's hobbadehoy footboy. 1886Jerome Idle Thoughts (1889) 101 A man rarely carries his shyness past the hobbledehoy period.
2. Locally applied by children to a large clumsy top. (Cf. hobbler2 2.)
1825Brockett s.v., Children call a large unmanageable top, a hobblety-hoy.
Hence hobbledeˈhoydom, the condition of a hobbledehoy; also concr. hobbledehoys collectively. hobbledeˈhoyhood, the age or condition of a hobbledehoy, adolescence. hobbledeˈhoyish a., like a hobbledehoy. hobbledeˈhoyism, the condition or character of a hobbledehoy.
1876F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow I. vi. 69 The period of *hobbledehoydom. 1889T. A. Guthrie Pariah iii. vii, The hobble-de-hoydom of that village..had assembled.
1836Blackw. Mag. XXXIX. 483 Enquiries into the exact period of Athenian *hobble-de-hoyhood. a1863Thackeray Fatal Boots iv, From boyhood until hobbadyhoyhood—from fourteen until seventeen.
1812G. Colman Poet. Vagaries (1814) 12 When Master Daw full fourteen years had told, He grew as it is termed, *hobbedyhoy-ish. 1874Burnand My time xxvi. 236 In a rude, shy, hobbledehoyish way.
1837New Monthly Mag. L. 123 They feel themselves springing into *hobbledyhoyism. 1864Homeward Mail 2 Aug. 665 It is an unfailing characteristic of hobbledehoyism to dress and to talk like a man, before thinking and acting as a man. |