www.alphadictionary.com

Posted: **Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:02 am**

I discovered this word yesterday. It refers to an Anglo-Indian dictionary(dictionary of Indian English) but also refers to the way the English language adopts a foreign word to it,s own phonology. ''Hoosegow'' for ''juzgado'' is a Hobson-Jobson.''

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:06 pm**

A nice phrase for folk etymology.

Hobson-Jobson
1634, British soldiers' mangled Anglicization of the Ar. cry they heard at Muharram processions in India, Ya Hasan! Ya Husayn! ("O Hassan! O Husain!"), mourning two grandsons of the Prophet who died fighting for the faith. This led to the linguists' law of Hobson-Jobson, describing the effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony with the language.

Mangled is a good word here. It was definitely put through the wringer.

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:25 pm**

Interesting: never heard the term before. Probably never
will again either. Does not sound like one in common
parlance.