hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar

[Jonathan Lighter]

Listmembers will be happy to know that the editor of HDAS examined all or
nearly all of Livingston's works, along with every notable hobo book and
available hobo article published before 1940. He also noted any significant
data after that date.
His findings, in capsule form, appear in HDAS.
(All right, *my* findings, dammit, and without their newfangled Interweb or
Googolplex or whatever the hell they call it! Smart-aleck young pups! And I
used a *pen* too!!!)
JL
On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:18 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This website is devoted to "A No. 1".   He was a hobo (or tramp -- it seems
> to use "hobo" and "tramp" interchangeably), active early in the 20th
> C, and famous
> enough to be named in one of Louis Armstrong's records ("Hobo, You Can't
> Ride This Train").   His right name was Leon Ray Livingston.  He wrote and
> published a number of books.
> http://www.angelfire.com/folk/famoustramp/
>
> A friend of mine is the head of the Boston chapter of the Industrial
> Workers of the World and is collecting books by hoboes.  I don't know
> whether he has any by A No. 1,  though he does have one illustrated by
> Ernie Bushmiller.   (http://www.drawger.com/kroninger/?article_id=12528)
>
> GAT
>
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:34 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > As good a guess as any.  It would connect it to (orig. Eng. dial.) "bo,"
> > 'boy, usu. in direct address.'
> >
> > HDAS/OED cites begin only in 1889, from the Northwest. By the early
> > '90s "hobo" seems to have been fairly current, though not outside
> railroad
> > and hobo circles.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: hobo synonymous with panhandler or beggar
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > JL wrote, inter alia:
> > >
> > > ....It's especially interesting since the ety. of "hobo" remains
> > > unknown.....
> > >
> > > ****
> > >
> > > For what it may be worth, the earliest known usage--at least the
> earliest
> > > one mentioned on ads-l--of "hobo" offers a (proposed) etymology.
> > >
> > > St. Paul daily globe., November 30, 1885, Page 8, Image 9 col. 1 -2
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1885-11-30/ed-1/seq-9/;words=tramp+Hobo+HOBO+Tramp?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=advanced&proxdistance=5&date2=1885&ortext=&proxtext=tramp+hobo&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0
> > >
> > > After mention of Hennepin County, etc., in  the section "thieves'
> > > Vocabulary":
> > >
> > > ....An overcoat is a "Ben." Hobo is a call to attract attention, the
> same
> > > as Hello in the average citizen's vernacular. It is pronounced with the
> > > long sound of the vowel, o, in both syllables, and is sometimes uttered
> > > with the aspirate omitted, as "Obo," and is the shibboleth of the
> > > fraternity of bums and crooks. It s now commonly applied by them as a
> > > generic term to designate he order....
> > >
> > > Stephen Goranson
> > > http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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