Word.ws English Dictionary

law of Hobson-Jobson

law of Hobson-Jobson noun: the process by which words or phrases borrowed between languages will be modified in their pronunciation as necessary to conform to the set of sounds used by the borrowing language.

Noun

law of Hobson-Jobson

  1. The process by which words or phrases borrowed between languages will be modified in their pronunciation as necessary to conform to the set of sounds used by the borrowing language.
    • In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the expression ‘the law of Hobson-Jobson.’ The name is an adaptation from the expression used by Col. Yule and Mr. Burnell as a name for their interesting Dictionary of Anglo-Indian words. The law is well recognised, though it has lacked a name...1898, Edward Ellis Morris, Austral English, page xv
    • Its variations show a familiar effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony with the language—an effort arising from what philologists call the law of Hobson-Jobson.[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 8, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 2, page 51

Examples of law of Hobson-Jobson in a sentence

  • In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the expression ‘the law of Hobson-Jobson.’ The name is an adaptation from the expression used by Col.1898, Edward Ellis Morris, Austral English, page xv:
  • Reckawackes, by the law of Hobson-Jobson, was turned into Rockaway, and Pentapang into Port Tobacco.[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 50, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 3, page 344:
  • A corruption of tomahawk: an instance of the law of Hobson-Jobson (q.v.).1921, John Stephen Farmer, s.v. "Tommy-axe", A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English Slang and Its Analogues, page 482

Origin of law of Hobson-Jobson

Coined by Edward Ellis Morris; based on Hobson-Jobson.

Questions about law of Hobson-Jobson

What does law of Hobson-Jobson mean?
Law of Hobson-Jobson means the process by which words or phrases borrowed between languages will be modified in their pronunciation as necessary to conform to the set of sounds used by the borrowing language.
How do you use law of Hobson-Jobson in a sentence?
In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the expression ‘the law of Hobson-Jobson.’ The name is an adaptation from the expression used by Col.
What part of speech is law of Hobson-Jobson?
Law of Hobson-Jobson is a noun.

Words near law of Hobson-Jobson in the dictionary

  1. Law of Demeter
  2. law of diminishing marginal utility
  3. law of diminishing returns
  4. law of double negation
  5. law of excluded middle
  6. law of Hobson-Jobson
  7. law of holes
  8. law of identity
  9. Law of Jante
  10. law of large numbers
  11. law of love

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: law of Hobson-Jobson (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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