HOBBLEDEHOY

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Dr. Goodword
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HOBBLEDEHOY

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:26 am

• hobbledehoy •

Pronunciation: hah-bêl-di-hoy • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An awkward, bad-mannered young boy, especially one struggling with adulthood.

Notes: Obviously, today's word was created to have fun with and the English writers have well met that expectation. Thackeray referred to this awkward stage of boyhood as "hobbledehoyhood" and Trollope called it "hobbledehoydom". Those who behave like a hobbledehoy have been called hobbledhoyish, reflecting hobbledhoyism.

In Play: Why litter your speech with such short words as geek and nerd when you have today's ripplingly long noun at your disposal: "I remember dating some hobbledehoy in high school who thought Chardonnay was a French actress!" This word trips across you tongue so pleasantly that we should use it for sheer delight of the experience: "Hey, Sis! Some gum-chewing hobbledehoy on a motorcycle says he's here to pick you up!"

Word History: No one has any idea where this word came from but this fact has never impeded Dr. Goodword before, so why would it today? It has assumed so many forms since its emergence in the 16th century that it would be difficult to track backwards: hobbard de hoy, hobberdy-hoy, habberdehoy, hobby de hoy, hobidehoy, ho-body hoy, or hobberdehoy. Its current shape associates it with hobble, an awkward or clumsy gait, and hoy "an awkward and clumsy person"—a word which got lost in the 17th century. So the most likely origin is the phrase hobbled hoy, which very few people could spell correctly over history.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:09 am

I have known a few hobbledehoys that shaped up over time, and others that stayed hobbledehoys well into their dotage.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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eberntson
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Miniver Cheevy

Postby eberntson » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:39 pm

Miniver Cheevy

Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would send him dancing.

Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam's neighbors.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.

Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.

Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing:
He missed the medieval grace
Of iron clothing.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.

-- Edwin Arlington Robinson
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:18 pm

One has to have some empathy for the subject of the poem:
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew mean while he assailed the seasons
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver's full name, which he'd borne,
Grew loathsome while he passed the seasons
And if filled with contempt and scorn,
He'd had his reasons.

Miniver Cheevy, if I'd worn
That horrid name for any season,
A murd'rer's noose I would have worn,
And with good reason.
I just notice an edit that is more appropriate for this pastiche.

O, Andrew The Board God, where is the Strikethrough tag?
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


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