I shall be glued to my radio at 11 o'clock tomorrow when Radio 4 is broadcasting Hobson-Jobson: a Very English Enterprise. I have often written on Hobson-Jobson (for instance, here and here) - it's one of my favourite topics, and the dictionary Hobson-Jobson: a Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases is one of my very favourite books, and the book I would choose to take with me were I ever dispatched to live on a desert island.
There's a page on the BBC website accompanying the programme (here), which gives the background to the dictionary, and some words in it. Here's a taster from the article, which is well worth a read:
Here is how Hobson-Jobson defines naukar-chaukar. It means "the servants" but the authors continue:
"One of those jingling double-barrelled phrases in which Orientals delight even more than Englishmen... As regards Englishmen, compare hugger-mugger, hurdy-gurdy, tip-top, higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, tit-for-tat, topsy-turvy... harum-scarum, roly-poly, rump and stump, slip-slop…"
Facinating and educational. Thanks for the heads-up on this programme, Susan.
Posted by: John | July 13, 2012 at 09:16 PM
I'm glad you could receive it, John. Yes, I found it very interesting and enjoyable too.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | July 13, 2012 at 10:19 PM