Query: "gone to Hobbes"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>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?

Likely it's the same as the "hob" in "play hob", "raise hob".

I suppose this "hob" _may_ be originally a name like "Bob", but for
practical purposes it's just something beginning with an "h", used as
a euphemism for "hell".

Here maybe the unfamiliar "hob" has been reinterpreted as "Hobbes"
(the surname, but not necessarily with any particular person alluded
to), or maybe the word is just "hobs", arbitrarily pluralized or
pluralized to make "hobs" = "hobgoblins" or something like that ...
or maybe the old lady actually said "hob"?

Just my casual notions.

-- Doug Wilson


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