Hobbit 的詞源

1937年，出现在J.R.R.托尔金（1892-1973）的幻想故事中。

On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why. [Tolkien, letter to W.H. Auden, dated 1955]

在一张空白的叶子上，我潦草地写道：‘在地面上的一个洞里，住着一个霍比特人。’我不知道也不明白为什么。[托尔金，致W.H.奥登的信，1955年]

这个词也出现在迈克尔·艾斯拉比·登汉（1859年逝世）的著作中，作为他解释那些在平安夜出生的人看不见灵魂的旁注，列在一长串民间超自然生物中。登汉是一位早期的民俗学家，专注于诺森伯兰、达勒姆、西摩兰、坎布里亚、曼岛和苏格兰。这在《登汉文集》第2卷中印刷[编辑詹姆斯·哈迪，伦敦：民俗学会，1895年]，是登汉散落出版物的汇编。

What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks necks, waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins Gyre-carling, pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost. Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its specter, or its knocker. The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!

七十或八十年前，甚至更早，能在这个所有节日的前夕出生的那些幸运儿，必定是多么幸福；当整个大地都被鬼魂、妖怪、血骨、灵魂、恶魔、鬼火、小精灵、梦魇、黑犬、幽灵、壳衣、稻草人、女巫、巫师、妖怪、罗宾·古德费洛、女巫、夜蝙蝠、残骸、断颈、幻想、霍比特人、霍布高布林、沼泽精灵、朵比、霍布推、幽灵、凯尔比、魔法师、假乞丐、愚人、詹米·伯提、海胆、萨梯尔、潘、法恩、塞壬、海神、人马、卡尔卡斯、仙女、恶魔、梦魇、树人、地狱战车、火龙、凯特·阿坎·斯蒂克、汤姆·坦布勒、梅尔奇·迪克、拉尔斯、凯蒂·女巫、霍比·灯笼、迪克·阿·星期二、精灵之火、吉尔·烧焦的尾巴、敲门者、精灵、生头、梅格·瓦兹、老肖克斯、幽灵、帕德·福特、皮克西、皮克特、巨人、矮人、汤姆·波克、图特戈特、喷龙、斯普伦斯、斯潘克斯、坦塔拉博布斯、斯韦斯、丁特、托德·洛瑞、杰克·瓦兹、摩尔莫斯、交换儿、红帽、耶斯·猎犬、小精灵、汤姆·拇指、黑虫、博加特、伤疤虫、毛驴、霍比·画眉、虫子、牛乞丐、比戈恩斯、球、凯迪斯、博门、布拉格斯、幽灵、瓦夫斯、剥皮博加特、恶魔、加利特罗斯、小精灵、吉特拉什、补丁、霍比·和灯笼、格林杰斯、博古斯、无骨者、佩格·波勒斯、普克斯、费伊斯、绑架者、加利贝加斯、哈德斯金斯、尼克斯、疯帽子、巨魔、罗宾特、修道士的灯笼、丝克、冷男孩、死亡灵车、哥布林、霍比·无头者、虫子、奶牛，或母牛，尼基斯、纳克斯脖子、维斯、米菲斯、巴基斯、食尸鬼、精灵、客人、斯沃斯、弗雷斯、弗雷特斯、吉·卡林斯·吉尔·卡林、侏儒、奇蒂脸、尼克西斯、金尼·烧焦的尾巴、杜德曼、地狱犬、双胞胎、博加博斯、博吉斯、红人、命运、恶魔、女祭司、尼克内文斯、白女、仙女、毛帽、切蒂斯和尼塞斯，以及各种形状、制作、形式、样式、种类和描述的幻影，几乎没有一个村庄在英格兰没有自己独特的鬼魂。每一个孤立的住宅、城堡或古老的豪宅，若能自豪地称有任何古老的历史，都有其自己的博格尔、幽灵或敲门者。教堂、教堂墓地和十字路口都被鬼魂缠绕。每条绿道都有其守夜的石头。每个公地都有其属于它的仙女圈。而几乎没有一个牧羊人没有见过灵魂！

[强调添加] 有趣的是，这个名字在民间传说中没有其他出现，也没有证据表明托尔金曾见过这个词。该词还从1835年起被记录为“在威尔士通常用来表示由四个威尔士斗组成的数量的术语”[在休斯诉汉弗莱斯的英语法庭记录中，一个重量与测量案件]。Hobbitry从1947年起被证明。