# On the origin of "hobo"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-hobo/577549>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 7, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-hobo/577549 "2011-04-07T17:54:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-hobo/577549/23 "2011-05-06T17:08:25Z")

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Could you provide some backup for this?

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-hobo/577549/24 "2011-05-06T17:57:09Z")

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Do you have a cite for that, **ichabop**? I always heard that the definitions of 2 and 3 were the other way around.

[http://thesaurus.com/browse/migrant+worker](http://thesaurus.com/browse/migrant+worker)  
“a hobo is a migratory worker who likes to travel, a tramp travels without working, and a bum does not travel or work”

[http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-GeorgiaHobo.html](http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-GeorgiaHobo.html)  
Incidentally, “Hobo,” “Tramp,” and “Bum” are often used interchangeably, but by the 1920s, usage had stabilized, as quoted in Norm Cohen’s Long Steel Rail: “A hobo is a migratory worker. A tramp is a migratory non-worker. A bum is a stationary non-worker.” You can see why an itinerant would prefer to be called a hobo.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-hobo/577549/25 "2011-05-06T18:14:43Z")

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> [@samclem](#):
>
> Here’s the latest and probably the correct answer.
> 
> The term first appears in print in 1885. From 2-3 cites in that time frame, it is proposed that the term “ho bo” was a cry of greeting between these knights of the road. This is the concensus of the American Dialect Society Mailing List.
> 
> [Oldest cite](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0905D&L=ADS-L&P=R3224&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&m=77162)
> 
> [Barry Popik’s find from 1888](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606D&L=ADS-L&P=R10273&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&m=43412)

I’ve just found this alleged cite.:  
[http://www.angelfire.com/folk/famoustramp/terminology.html](http://www.angelfire.com/folk/famoustramp/terminology.html)  
Hobo (2) - From “Hoe Boy” after the itinerant 19th century farm laborers, who trainhopped with their belongings in a bundle tied to a hoe. The origin may be supported by a sentence that Barry Popik of the American Dialect Society found n the New Orleans Picayune of 19 August 1848: “A year’s bronzing and ‘ho-boying’ about among the mountains of that charming country called Mexico, has given me a slight dash of the Spanish.”

What do you think, real quote, or made up piece of garbage?  
Are you able to check this out?

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