hobby
nounEtymology
Shortened from hobby-horse, from Middle English hoby, hobyn, hobin (“small horse, pony”), from Old French hobi, *haubi, haubby, hobin ("a nag, hobby"; > Modern French aubin, Italian ubino), of Germanic origin: from Old French hober, ober (“to stir, move”), from Old Dutch hobben (“to toss, move up and down”); or from North Germanic origin related to Danish hoppe (“a mare”), Old Swedish hoppa (“a young mare”), North Frisian hoppe (“horse”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb- (“to bend; a bend, joint”). More at hop, hobble. The meaning of hobby-horse shifted from "small horse, pony" to "child's toy riding horse" to "favorite pastime or avocation" with the connecting notion being "activity that doesn't go anywhere". Possibly originally from a proper name for a horse, a diminutive of Robert or Robin (compare dobbin).
Definitions
An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
- I like to collect stamps from different countries as a hobby.
- take up a hobby
- give up your hobby
An extinct breed of horse native to the British Isles, also known as the Irish Hobby.
- I was out a-hunting to-day, and I got away to a place in the wood I’d never seen before. And there was an old chalk-pit. And I heard a kind of a sort of humming. So I got off my hobby, and I went right quiet to the pit, and I looked down.
Synonym of hobby horse (“a favorite topic”).
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Any of four species of small falcons in the genus Falco, especially Falco subbuteo.
- He hawked – from nearby Esher, Richard Fox sent a servant with a hobby, which Henry received enthusiastically – and hunted, sending a present of freshly slaughtered deer to Princess Mary.
An English surname transferred from the given name.
The neighborhood
- synonympastime
- synonymamusement
- synonymdiversion
- synonymdivertisement
- synonymfancy
- synonymhobby
- synonymkill-time
- synonympursuit
- synonymsport
- antonymwork
- neighborhobbyhorse
- neighborhobelar
- neighborhobeler
- neighbordilettantism
- neighborgame
- neighboractivity
- neighborleisure
- neighboramateur radio
- neighborarctophily
- neighborballooning
- neighborbirdkeeping
- neighborbird-nesting
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at hobby. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at hobby. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
10 hops · closes at hobby
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA