• hobbledehoy •
Printable Version Pronunciation: hah-bêl-di-hoy • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: An awkward, bad-mannered young boy, especially one struggling with adulthood.
Notes: Obviously, today's word was created to have fun with and the English writers have well met that expectation. Thackeray referred to this awkward stage of boyhood as "hobbledehoyhood" and Trollope called it "hobbledehoydom". Those who behave like a hobbledehoy have been called hobbledhoyish, reflecting hobbledhoyism.
In Play: Why litter your speech with such short words as geek and nerd when you have today's ripplingly long noun at your disposal: "I remember dating some hobbledehoy in high school who thought Chardonnay was a French actress!" This word trips across you tongue so pleasantly that we should use it for sheer delight of the experience: "Hey, Sis! Some gum-chewing hobbledehoy on a motorcycle says he's here to pick you up!"
Word History: No one has any idea where this word came from but this fact has never impeded Dr. Goodword before, so why would it today? It has assumed so many forms since its emergence in the 16th century that it would be difficult to track backwards: hobbard de hoy, hobberdy-hoy, habberdehoy, hobby de hoy, hobidehoy, ho-body hoy, or hobberdehoy. Its current shape associates it with hobble, an awkward or clumsy gait, and hoy "an awkward and clumsy person"—a word which got lost somewhere in the 17th century. So the most likely origin is the phrase hobbled hoy, which very few people could spell correctly over history.
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
