• History,  Life: bits and pieces

    Words & where they come from: ‘Hobby’

    Where does the English word ‘hobby’ originate?

    https://www.etymonline.com/word/hobby 

    The etymonline website tells me that hobi or hobyn originated from Anglo-Latin in the 14th or 15th century.

    It meant ‘horse’. No surprises there!

    Our two more modern versions are from the early 19th century. Probably referring to a wooden or wickerwork toy figure, or a costume in a dance (such as Morris dances).
    Today, ‘hobby’ can mean either:
    1) a child’s hobbyhorse (stick with horse’s head, or a rocking horse). I can remember happy times galloping on my hobbyhorse when I was a very little girl. Then there’s the  shortened version of this word resulting in ‘hobby’, meaning:
    2) a spare time activity or past time, for pleasure and recreation, (From Macquarie Compact Dictionary 2017)