Hobson's choice

[Charles Doyle]

Regarding the ironic lexeme "Hobson's choice":

In a posting several days ago, I wondered eloud why the OED erroneously refers to the eponymous Thomas Hobson as "Tobias" Hobson (s.v. CHOICE sb. 2.c) .

Whatever the answer is, the mistake was made more than a century ago--in the old NED, volume 2 (part 1), dated 1893.  From there, the misinformation has been carried forward.

--Charlie

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