Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun originally The
Irish hobby , an extinct breed of horse. - noun A child's
toy consisting of a (usually wooden or cloth)horse mounted on astick . - noun figuratively A topic about which someone loves to talk at great length.
- noun A puppet-like costume used in some traditional dances and festivals that gives its wearer the appearance of a man on horseback.
- noun An early
bicycle with nopedals orbrakes ; adraisienne .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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andrew.simone commented on the word hobby horse
Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
the hobby-horse is forgot.'
December 10, 2006
slumry commented on the word hobby horse
Interesting--a term commented on, but not "claimed" until now.
6/20/07
June 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
I think that happens when the first person to add the word subsequently deletes it. The word stays, the lister goes.
June 20, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
It's my whole philosophy. I like leaving nuggets in unlisted words because I imagine that eventually someone will add them and be pleasantly surprised to find something unexpected. Or bewildered by it. It's pretty much all I've done on the site for the past couple months. ;-)
June 20, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
Which drives me slightly nuts. I keep wanting to see a list of all the little uselessness easter eggs(?) hidden within the site.
June 20, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
Just call me the sneaky wittle bunny wabbit. You'll nevah find them! Nevah!!
June 20, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
Wait a minute....
June 20, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
Your list of comments goes on *forever*, but I could find them all there, if there was a pressing need.
June 20, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
You mean it works? Last time I tried to load that page, which was a couple months ago, it freaking crashed my browser. And I tried it like ten times. John apologized, said something about how the really long comments pages break stuff, and that was that. I haven't tried it again since.
You say it's fixed now? Crappy crap crap.
June 20, 2007
slumry commented on the word hobby horse
That would explain why my own comments list does not come up. It may be just as well.
June 20, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
Odd. u has over 1000 comments, and yours only has 300.
June 20, 2007
slumry commented on the word hobby horse
Well, who knows. I probably bracketerred or something. I will wait and see what happens.
June 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
Bracketerred? Sounds like a coinage to me!
June 21, 2007
slumry commented on the word hobby horse
You bet your booties it's a coinage. They are just starting to roll off my tongue. I am beginning to think word salad. Do you think I should be worried?
June 21, 2007
valse commented on the word hobby horse
Seeing bracketerred makes me think of bracketeering, and now I wonder what that might mean and if someone could be indicted for it.
June 21, 2007
slumry commented on the word hobby horse
That is funny. I intended someting like "bracket error"--I understand that comments pages break due to incorrect use of brackets, among other things.
But bracketeering is intersting. . .and now my brain is going to electioneering. As I read the definition now, it sounds pretty innocuous, but I had thought the word meant improper influencing of voters at the polls, which one would think would be in indictable offence.
June 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
And yet for some reason, that "-eer" construction always puts me in mind of something merry and fun rather than something illegal and secretive. Racketeering, for example, sounds like something the Mouseketeers might have done (with song and dance included, of course). Blame it on Disney.
Though you do have a point, Valse, about bracketeering--a heinous abuse of punctuation, perhaps?
June 21, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
The host of a radio show I listen to says that those who support laissez-faire economics should proudly call themselves free marketeers. His co-host disagrees, saying it conjures up too many images of the Mouseketeers, and no one will ever take that name seriously. It's an age-old debate on the show. :-)
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
racketeer, privateer, buccaneer, commandeer, musketeer - all very swashbuckle-y...
June 21, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
Don't forget pioneer!
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
I think it is hard to swashbuckle in a bonnet.
June 21, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
I'm not talking about Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm talking Lewis and Clark! Teddy Roosevelt! Billy the Kid! Linus Torvalds!
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
or a coonskin cap.
(...unless you're Davey Crockett)
June 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
Look at this! A list is forming itself right here before our eyes! :-)
Why can't one swashbuckle in a coonskin cap? I think they look jaunty.
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
I think you need some sort of sword to swashbuckle. A flintlock rifle just doesn't cut the mustard. And a bowie knife doesn't have the necessary panache.
Feathers on a hat are jaunty. Tails are more, um, earthy.
June 21, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
A sword, or bayonet, or perhaps a musket or just a razer-sharp wit. I'm not picky. Heck, I bet people swashbuckled in togas before France was even invented.
June 21, 2007
oroboros commented on the word hobby horse
Y'all haven't extracted the full measure of pithiness in life iffn you hain't wore a coonskin cap backards!!
June 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
This is going to be one of those pages that goes down in Wordie history. I can just feel it.
Trivet, you're etymologically correct, according to OED--apparently the literal meaning of "swash + buckler" was "one who makes a noise by striking his own or his opponent's shield with his sword." I had no idea a sword was required to buckle one's swash.
So damn...I was looking forward to uselessness wielding his razor-sharp wit to defend the pioneers....
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
Cool! (Always nice to have one's irrational assumptions vindicated...)
Uselessness, in my counterintuitive brain, pioneers came *after* the frontiersmen, explorers, and trappers. More phlegmatic, less derring-do.
June 21, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
You're right if you're talking about The Pioneers, just like The Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower. But in the lowercase sense, a pioneer is just among the first of a brave few to move into a frontier (again, note lowercase, not The Frontier, which refers to the American west). I think pioneer is a great word with many applications beyond the Oregon Trail.
And you should know by now, I'm all about the derring-do. :-)
June 21, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
Academically, I know this to be true, but they're pretty indistinguishable to me. I see pioneer and think covered wagons - even when reading biographical info. I get a lovely mental picture of a 'pioneer in the field of medicine' wearing buckskins and a stethoscope...
June 21, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
It already is in wordie history. Check out my conversations list. :)
June 22, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word hobby horse
I can't speak to the swashing part, but a buckler is a small round shield used in dagger or swordfighting. As in, sword and buckler.
This is irrelevant to hobby horses though...
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
I think this whole thread is now irrelevant to hobby horses. ;-)
June 22, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hobby horse
Oh, this is the *hobby horse* page? ;)
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
What is a hobby horse, anyway?
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
U, you're *such* a young'un. ;-) Here you go.
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
Oh! I'd put that on my "It Has a Name?" list, if I had one. I always thought those were just called toy horses with sticks for bodies.
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
They're also called that, I believe. But hobby horse is ever so much more elegant, don't you think? ;-)
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
Yeah, but that's the problem. It's such a lower-middle-class toy, innit?
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
Hmm. I never really considered one's socioeconomic status in relation to hobby horse ownership. I'll have to do more research. Anyone?
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
I take it back... I've seen elaborate antique ones in museums that almost look too delicate for actual play. Beautiful though. I wonder if one might call those hobby horses, while the cruder versions remain toy horses with sticks for bodies. ;-)
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
Word elitist. ;-)
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
Hardly. My family was so poor, I didn't even get a toy horse with a stick for a body.
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
Nor I. But we did have one of those bouncy horses that sit in a big metal frame. They're fun, until you tip the scales at more than about 30 lbs.
June 22, 2007
trivet commented on the word hobby horse
A broom makes a perfectly good stick horse...
June 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hobby horse
But...but...that requires imagination! Plus you get dust bunnies in your face. ;-)
June 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hobby horse
My childhood was a period of extended affliction from legomania. We also had one of those bouncy horses, but I broke it almost immediately. I used a broom as a stick horse a couple of times, but ended up breaking the broom too.
June 22, 2007
treeseed commented on the word hobby horse
larger hobby-horses feature in some traditional seasonal customs such as Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in the British Isles)
January 20, 2008