hobble

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drsved
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hobble

Postby drsved » Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:56 pm

Derivation?
Margie Sved

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Slava
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Re: hobble

Postby Slava » Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:03 am

c.1300, hoblen "to rock back and forth, toss up and down," probably related to its Du. cognate hobbelen. Transitive sense of "tie the legs of an animal" first recorded 1831, probably an alteration of 16c. hopple, cognate with Flem. hoppelen "to rock, jump," related to Du. hobbelen. Sense of "hamper, hinder" is c.1870.
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Re: hobble

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:24 am

"I can't look at hobbles
And I can't stand fences.
Don't fence me in."
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Re: Don't Fence me in

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:41 pm

Do you know who wrote this song? You'll be surprised as I was.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

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Slava
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Re: hobble

Postby Slava » Tue Oct 15, 2013 7:13 pm

In the 1990 movie "Misery", didn't Kathy Bates' character hobble James Caan's? A vicious use of the word, but that is what I remember it being called.
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Re: hobble

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:33 pm

YouTube has a very bad version of the song sung by Abba who are reading it from sheet music. I'd rather hear Roy Rogers do it. Cole Porter, by the way, is the composer.
Last edited by Perry Lassiter on Mon Nov 04, 2013 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: hobble

Postby eberntson » Mon Nov 04, 2013 9:49 am

It brought to my mind the Iliad and what was common practice to hobble prisoners by cutting their achilles tendon, if I remember correctly. You can apparently still hobble around and work but can't run away. It was a practice used often on slaves throughout history to keep a troublesome runaway in check, even in our own USofA history; shame, shame!

I think in a Sherlock Holmes adventure there is a story of lame sheep and a attempt to hobble a racehorse.

E
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

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gailr
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Re: hobble

Postby gailr » Mon Nov 04, 2013 10:32 pm

Variations of the hobble skirt have gone in and out of fashion, starting ca1910. The entire purpose of the hobble skirt is to restrict the stride to tiny, mincing steps.

A very theatrical version appears from ~3:27-3:47 in Soomo Publishing's Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage, a dramatization of the women's suffrage movement reinterpreting the music, movements, and costumes from one of Lady Gaga's videos, with great effect. The actresses (and historical figures) were definitely not wearing hobble skirts when they marched and finally entered the voting booths!



(An earlier video from Soomo is Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration and I'd also recommend it people who like history & theater.)

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Slava
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Re: hobble

Postby Slava » Mon Nov 04, 2013 10:54 pm

I have never come across the term hobble skirt, but I now realize I see them often in summer months. I do not expect they are meant to be hobble skirts, but the end result is similar.

How many times in this season do we see young (mostly) women wearing short short skirts stopping every few feet to tug them back down? A form of hobbling I never thought of.
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Re: hobble

Postby eberntson » Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:16 pm

Hobble skirt must be what Carol Burnette's secretary character wears, a comedic and absurd version yet probably accurate.

Thx Gailr!

It was Oscar Wilde that said, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."


E
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns


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