hobbit

Meaning

Noun

• A Welsh unit of weight, equal to four Welsh pecks, or 168 pounds
• An old unit of volume ( bushels, the volume of 168 pounds of wheat).

Origin

• Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical *holbȳtla. Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblin following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.
• Probably from hoppet, hobbet.