Hobnob

[Dr. Goodword]

• hobnob •

Pronunciation: hahb-nahb • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: To associate with the elite on familiar terms, to socialize or snobbishly hang around with wealthy or powerful people.

Notes: Outside the US this word is still sometimes spelled with a hyphen, hob-nob, for reasons that will become evident in the Word History. This noun may be put to use as a verb without adjustment: "Horace hobnobs with the high and haughty." You probably won't find them in the dictionary, but you may encounter hobnobber "someone who hobnobs", hobnobbery "the act of hobnobbing", and hobnobbish "tending to hobnob", out there in the real world.

In Play: Today's Good Word implies spending time with the rich: "Phil Anders is now hobnobbing with wealthy families who have eligible unmarried daughters." Where wealth and power are disjoined, it may also imply socializing with merely the powerful: "If Hooker Crooke isn't a lobbyist, he certainly hobnobs with a lot of congressmen in Washington."

Word History: Today's Good Word goes back to two words in Old English: habbe "to have" and nabbe "to not have". Hab and nab would be a reduction of these two words pronounced the same as hob and nob, even though this spelling only appeared in the middle of the 18th century. Hob and nob soon became hob-a-nob and, ultimately, today's word (hence the hyphen outside the US). The phrase hob-nob began as an adverb with the sense of drinking together, probably with overtones of the "give and take" of chat, as Shakespeare used it. The meaning then melted into the sense of drinking camaraderie itself, as 'to hob and nob over a glass of sherry'. This chumminess finally narrowed to a chumminess with only those of considerable means. (We are very grateful to Rodger Collins and Bryan Goff for hobnobbing with us on the Alpha Agora enough to suggest we do today's very Good Word.)

[call_copse]

In the UK, a popular biscuit, a hybrid of flapjack and digestive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobnob_biscuit

Presumably to be consumed whilst hob-nobbing, though I do not deign to acknowledge social status.

[Perry Lassiter]

Having never heard the word "digestive" as a noun, I looked it up and discovered it as a British "biscuit" or cookie. Call Copse, you may have been the Britisher who claimed never to have eaten an American biscuit, for which I gave a rough recipe. Digestive does have an interesting etymology, but who wudda thot doctors would invent a cookie for roughage?

Incidentally, there has been a popular restaurant/bar in West Monroe, LA called The HobNob for years. Sort of a country atmosphere.

[George Kovac]

England has given America so many enduring and constructive elements of our culture--language, literature, law, entrepreneurship, and representative democracy for starters. But English food is not on that list. Perhaps the English had exhausted all their creativity before they thought about eating. As the late William Safire (and eminent epeolator) once observed, if America had not encouraged immigration from the rest of the world, we'd be stuck eating luke-warm grey meat like our English forbears.

I am familiar with the English noun "digestive" to describe a rather bland sort of biscuit. The use of an adjective as a noun is hardly the worst feature of this execrable Englishism. "Digestive" is a word I find off-puttingly clinical and functional, but accurate, given the almost therapeutic blandness for what should have been an enjoyable food treat. Could have been worse. At least the English do not try to serve us something called a "carminative."

[call_copse]

I still have yet to attempt an American biscuit. I have some time off this week though so may try a little baking with my young children. They'd like them.

English/British food is actually very good these days and I'd suggest compares well to the cuisine of any country you could come across. Mainly stolen from other countries of course but there are some real delights out there, and even basic pub grub can now be expected to be of a decent standard - the osso buco I had from the local hostelry the other day was superb, also a confit pork belly of great quality, for not too much money.

Still not a great fan of digestives (or many biscuits/cookies at all) though.

[George Kovac]

Iain, perhaps you would have a different perspective on cookies if you ventured across the Channel. Cookies--the sweet, the chocolately, the fruity, the nutty can be quite tasty, and I suspect that America's cookies (and America's obsession with them) descend from Continental examples.

"Digestives" was a terrible solution to the issue of snacking options, and perhaps the English are just different in their preference for function over flavor. I am reminded of this English fixation from my first attempted visit to St. Paul's Cathedral. I did not know that an investiture was scheduled for the time I hoped to visit. I was stopped on the steps by a cheeky young priest with a dry sense of humor who had been stationed at the doors to shoo away tourists like me. "Can't go in there t'day, sir" he said. "The place is closed. They're constipating a new bishop."

I guess they should have used digestives for the communion service.

As to English food (even if a borrowed cuisine), Iain you are absolutely correct, digestives aside, it has become quite good since my first visit to London 35 years ago. My original post complaining about English food was tongue in cheek.

[Slava]

Query: what is an "epeolator"? Or is that a typo for something?

[George Kovac]

Query: what is an "epeolator"? Or is that a typo for something?

Well, epeolator is my own (tongue in cheek) formation of a word to mean "one who practices epeoloatry." Here is a definition of that word, plus an example of usage:

epeolatry (ep-i-OL-uh-tree) noun the worship of words. From Greek epos (word) + -latry (worship). The first citation of the word is from Oliver Wendell Holmes (père, non fils), in his 1860 book Professor at the Breakfast Table: "I read my dictionary for a few more minutes, until tiredness eventually bought my epeolatry to an end for the day."

Seriously? Who would use a word like "epeolatry" other than ironically? Did Holmes (Sr.) really talk like that?

Synonyms for "epeolatry" include "verbolatry" and "grammatolatry" which also can be found in larger dictionaries, but those words sound less felicitous to my ear than "epeolotry." ... and less clearly linked to "word" as opposed to "verbs" or "grammar."

As to my coinage of "epeolator" (sort of rhymes with "idolater"), well, I thought of "wordie" (like using "foodie" for a gastronome) but that sound had already been appropriated by "wordy." I am open to suggestions for a better word than epeolator to describe a person who is excessively fond of words.

Cheers!

[misterdoe]

Wordie sounds just right to me, despite the potential confusion with wordy -- in fact, there once was a site for people "excessively fond of words," as you put it, but wordies.org is no longer online.

[Perry Lassiter]

We use two: word maven.