[Ads-l] antedating (?) of "hobo"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Back in '07, Sam Clements posted an 1886 ex. of "hobo."

1885 _St. Paul Daily Globe_ (Nov. 30)  9 [Newspapers.com]:  LIFE IN JAIL
..."THE HOBO" The genus tramp, i.e. the "bum" or "Hobo," is usually made up
of a conglomeration of human outcasts....But the genuine, unreformable
bum, the "Hobo"... is... a beast of prey, and a filthy, lazy, lousy,
shiftless vagabond: foul-mouthed, coarse, sensual, brutish...."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 bums and crooks. It is now commonly applied by
them as a generic term to designate the order. Hence, "Hobo," when used in
a substantive sense, means tramp or crook, as the case may be. For
instance, when one says. "That man is a Hobo," he means [a] tramp or crook.

The article contains some other exx. of 19th C. crooks' sang, some of which
may be antedatings.

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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