Col. Sir Henry Yule, colonial lexicographer
As my recent posts have reflected, I’m still basking in the afterglow of the meeting last month of the Dictionary Society of North America, a gathering of about a hundred people who make dictionaries, study dictionaries, or just enjoy words.
Since that meeting, I’ve argued that “Unabridged” is an odd name for a dictionary. But that’s nothing compared with Hobson-Jobson.
That’s the name given to a dictionary whose sober subtitle, in one edition, is A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive.
It’s an old dictionary, first published in 1886, so it’s in the public domain. You can find the full text of the 1903 second edition in Google Books.
And it’s a ve…