Query: "gone to Hobbes"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Nasty,_poor_, brutish, and short."

  Said by someone to be a desciption of Alexander Pope.

  JL

Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Alice Faber
Organization: Haskins Laboratories
Subject: Re: Query: "gone to Hobbes"
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Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
> Today I was told that a 90 year old lady had matter-of-factly said that the crops this year "have just gone to Hobbes" (roughly = simply went to hell in a handbasket). The younger lady to whom she said this then asked her about the expression, and the older lady answered that her mother had often used it.
>
> I don't have OED or DARE handy, but I see the expression doesn't appear in the ads-l archives or HDAS. Is anyone here familiar with it and would anyone have any idea who Hobbes in the expression is?
>

The economist (?) noted for describing life as "nasty, brutish, and
short"? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes)

--
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Alice Faber faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA fax (203) 865-8963

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