What is "hobson-jobson"

1690s, hossen gossen, said to have been British soldiers' mangled Englishing of the Arabic cry they heard at Muharram processions in India, Ya Hasan! Ya Husayn! ("O Hassan! O Husain!"), mourning two grandsons of the Prophet who died fighting for the faith. Title of Yule & Burnell's 1886 glossary of Anglo-Indian words, and taken by linguists in naming the law of Hobson-Jobson, describing the effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony with the language.

n. A word or phrase borrowed by one language from another and modify in pronunciation to fit the set of sounds and the spelling the borrowing language typically uses.

Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, or Hobson-Jobson is a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and terms from Indian languages which came into use during the British rule of India.

It was written by Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell and first published in 1886. Burnell had died before the work was finished, and most of it was finished by Yule, who, however, deeply acknowledged Burnell's contributions. A subsequent edition was edited by William Crooke in 1903, with extra quotations and an index added. The first and second editions are collector's items; the second edition is widely available in facsimile.

The dictionary holds over 2,000 entries, generally with citations from literary sources, many of which date to the first European contact with the Indian subcontinent, frequently in other non-English European languages. Most entries also have etymological notes.