hobbit
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from hol (“hole”) + bytlan (“to build”) + -a (“-er”). Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblins following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.
Inflected forms:
form: hobbits
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: hobbitses
pos: noun
tags: humorous
plural
Senses:
gloss: A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
pos: noun
examples: It was his thirty-third birthday and already he had […] a little round tummy like a hobbit
gloss: A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
pos: noun
tags: humorous
gloss: An extinct species of hominin, Homo floresiensis, with a short body and relatively small brain, fossils of which have been recovered from the Indonesian island of Flores.
pos: noun
examples: Although partial remains of other Hobbits have surfaced at the same site, they say it could have been an isolated colony of inbred people who shared the same genetic abnormalities.
And in the island regions of southeast Asia, where the descendants of erectus, and the Hobbit, and any similar relict populations lived, climate changes would have greatly disrupted connections between regions and populations, as sea levels rose and fell by 100 metres or more.
The discovery of the Hobbit skeleton in Liang Bua cave in 2003 was an instant sensation. But what it said about human evolution was less clear.
Discoverer Mike Morwood proposed that it was a shrunken Homo erectus, the same species that eventually evolved to become us; others suggested the Hobbits were descended from smaller, more primitive early humans such as Homo habilis or Australopithecus.
The hobbit became extinct 50,000 years ago, about the time the first humans arrived on Flores, but the Pacific rat lived on.
gloss: A socially unappealing, overly academic student.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
uncommon
Related words: halfling
Derived words: dwobbit
fobbit
hobbitic
hobbitish
hobbitlike
hobbitness
hobbitry
hobbity
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: هُوبِيت
roman: hūbit
lang: Bengali
word: হবিট
roman: hobiṭ
lang: Breton
word: hobbit
lang: Bulgarian
word: хо́бит
roman: hóbit
lang: Catalan
word: hòbbit
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 霍比特人
roman: huòbǐtè-rén
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 哈比人
roman: hābǐ-rén
lang: Czech
word: hobit
lang: Czech
word: půlčík
lang: Danish
word: hobbit
lang: Dutch
word: hobbit
lang: Esperanto
word: hobito
lang: Faroese
word: hobbi
lang: Finnish
word: hobitti
lang: French
word: hobbit
lang: Georgian
word: ჰობიტი
roman: hobiṭi
lang: German
word: Hobbit
lang: Greek
word: χόμπιτ
roman: chómpit
lang: Greek
word: Χόμπιτ
roman: Chómpit
lang: Ancient Greek
word: ὅββιτος
roman: hóbbitos
lang: Hebrew
word: הוֹבִּיט
roman: hóbit
lang: Hungarian
word: hobbit
lang: Icelandic
word: hobbiti
lang: Irish
word: hobad
lang: Italian
word: hobbit
lang: Japanese
word: ホビット
roman: hobitto
lang: Korean
word: 호빗
roman: hobit
lang: Latin
word: hobbitus
lang: Marathi
word: हॉबिट
roman: hŏbiṭ
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: hobbit
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: hobbit
lang: Polish
word: hobbit
lang: Polish
word: hobbitka
lang: Portuguese
word: hobbit
lang: Russian
word: хо́ббит
roman: xóbbit
lang: Scots
word: hobbit
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: hobat
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: hobit
lang: Slovak
word: hobbit
lang: Upper Sorbian
word: hobit
lang: Spanish
word: hobbit
lang: Swedish
word: hobbit
lang: Swedish
word: hob
lang: Swedish
word: homp
lang: Tajik
word: хоббит
roman: xobbit
lang: Tajik
word: ҳоббит
roman: hobbit
lang: Thai
word: ฮอบบิท
roman: hɔ́p-bìt
lang: Turkish
word: hobit
lang: Ukrainian
word: гобіт
roman: hobit
lang: Welsh
word: hobyd
lang: Yiddish
word: האָביט
roman: hobit