Hobby
nounAn activity done regularly for pleasure during one's free time, rather than for pay.
How to spell hobby
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce hobby
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hobby mean?
- nounAn activity done regularly for pleasure during one's free time, rather than for pay.
Hobby in a sentence
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Woodworking became his favourite hobby after he retired.
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She took up photography as a hobby to fill her weekends.
Where does hobby come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word traces back to Middle English 'hobyn' or 'hoby', which was a familiar name for a small horse or pony, and is thought to derive from a pet form of the personal name Robin or Robert (the same playful naming habit that gave us 'dobbin' for a workhorse). By the 1400s this gave rise to the 'hobby horse', first a real small mount and later a toy horse that a child could pretend to ride. Because the rider went nowhere in particular and simply enjoyed the activity, 'hobby horse' came to mean a favourite pursuit followed for its own pleasure. By the 1600s English speakers had shortened this to plain 'hobby', meaning a pastime taken up for enjoyment rather than profit. The spelling keeps the doubled 'b' that the short vowel demands, which is the small trap writers occasionally stumble over.
How the word is built
- hobb- (from hobby, a small horse, via hobby horse)
- -y (noun suffix)
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