hobo

Etymology

Its origin is unknown or uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} The OED, in its 2023 revision, quotes an 1885 article in the “Daily Globe” of St Paul, Minnesota, that explains Hobo as a call to attract attention among tramps and crooks, like "hello", later used for the fraternity itself; if that is right, the call may be ho with a second element of uncertain origin, perhaps a reduplication, or boy or beau.^[2] Merriam-Webster suggests an alteration of "ho, boy", a call used by railway mail handlers in the northwestern United States in the 1880s,^[9][10] which Etymonline also mentions.^[11] Partridge, with the “Dictionary of American English”, took it as "ho! beau", a greeting among tramps in the 1880s and 1890s.^[12] Barnhart compares the dialect words hawbuck (“a clumsy fellow, lout”) (1805) and hawbaw (1857) as possible forerunners.^[13][11] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes claims for hoe-boy (“a migrant farm worker”), and a 1915 tramps' glossary that derived it from Latin homo (“man”) and bonus (“good”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A worker who travels from place to place without a settled home, especially on freight trains: 1885, in a heading in the “Daily Globe” of St Paul, Minnesota.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1889, in the western United States,^[11][13][9] and Barnhart notes that the earliest records capitalize it as the tramp's name for himself.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a migrant worker, and soon also a homeless vagrant who works only now and then.^[2][9] Mencken insisted on the difference: a hobo travels and works in the end, a tramp travels without working, and a bum neither works nor travels.^[14] It was used attributively from 1889 ("the hobo crop").^[14] The verb, at first in hobo it, is recorded from 1890, and without it from 1892.^[2] In World War I military slang a hobo was a cadger or useless person.^[14] The joking hobohemia, the community or life of hobos, dates from 1923.^[11] Weekley quotes a 1920 London report of hoboes in the casual wards.^[15]

Timeline

• 1885 – a migrant worker without a settled home.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1889.^[11][13][9]
• 1889 – attributive use, "the hobo crop".^[14]
• 1890 – the verb, to hobo it.^[2]
• 1892 – intransitive verb, to live or travel as a hobo.^[2]
• 1923 – hobohemia.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A migratory worker, especially one who travels by riding freight trains.^[9][8][2]
2. A homeless, usually penniless person who wanders from place to place and works only occasionally; a tramp or vagrant.^[9][8]
3. A large, pouch-shaped shoulder bag; a hobo bag.^[9]

Verb

1. To live or travel as a hobo: He hoboed his way west one summer.^[9][2][14]

Word family

• hoboism

Related words

• bohemian

Usage notes

The plural is hoboes or hobos.^[9][8] The word is chiefly American and Canadian.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray