Hobson-Jobson

Meaning

Noun

• Any Indian religious observance, especially the Muharram.
• The assimilation of borrowed lexis, either partial or whole, to word forms of the borrowing language.
• A word or phrase borrowed by one language from another and modified in pronunciation to fit the set of sounds the borrowing language typically uses.

Origin

• Derived from adapting the call Hassan! Hussein! (حَسَن حُسَيْن, a lament for the grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad) to Hobson and Jobson, a pair of comic figures popular in the nineteenth century. Note that the conventional derivation from "Ya Hussan! Ya Hussein!" is incorrect.
• Coined in the linguistic sense by Yule and Burnell in their dictionary Hobson-Jobson.