11 February 2013

hobbledehoy

[hob-uhl-dee-hoi]

noun

– an awkward, ungainly youth.

Origin:
1530–40; variant of hoberdyhoy, alliterative compound, equivalent to hoberd (variant of Roberd Robert) + -y2 + -hoy for boy ( b > h for alliteration; see hob2 )

Example sentence:

‘Miss O’Brien, we are about to host a society wedding. I have no time for training young hobbledehoys’.

– Mr Carson, Downton Abbey (Series 3)

Today’s aphorism

On the pavement
of my trampled soul
the steps of madmen
weave the prints of rude crude words.

– Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian Poet – “1” (1913); translation from Patricia Blake (ed.) The Bedbug and Selected Poetry (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975) p. 53.

On this day

11 February 1847 – birth of Thomas Edison, U.S. inventor. Died 18 October 1931.

11 February 1916 – Emma Goldman arrested for campaigning for birth control in New York.

11 February 1945 – The Yalta Agreement is signed by Josef Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), regarding the control of Germany once World War II finishes.

11 February 1979 – the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, is overthrown by the Iranian Revolution, and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini.