Hello,
A word colleague of mine lives in this fabled NJ city and has a question - she knows that the city name is based on a Native American word, but did the city name lead to the naming of “hoboes”? She has heard that it did because Hoboken was a clearinghouse city and saw a lot of people down on their luck looking for opportunity.
Thanks in advance for your help.
uh…that’s “work” colleague…must preview, must…preview
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate dictionary says “etymology unknown.” Who around here has an OED?
I always surmised the work “hobo” was a corruption from the French “hobereaux” which meant a former nobleman down on his financial luck or who had done something unaristocratic–like getting his hands dirty actually trying to make money–to lose his noble status. But, just a surmise.
Uh, I am under the impression that the New York town is named after a town in the Netherlands, as are Nieuw Amsterdam (New York), Haarlem, Schenectady, and Beverswyck (Albany).
word
Uh, I am under the impression that the New Jersey town is named after a town in the Netherlands, as are other places in the area like Nieuw Amsterdam (New York), Haarlem, Schenectady, Breucklen (Brooklyn), Bronx, and Beverswyck (now Albany).
My bad on that semi-double post. And apparently the old Hoboken is now in Belgium. . .
According to Cassell’s Dictionary Of Slang, the etymology of hobo is unknown.
Claims have been made for hoe-boy, a migrant farm worker, and the cry Ho, boy! used regularly by northwestern railway mail handlers c. 1880-90.
There is no mention of Hoboken in the definition.
Actually, Beverswyck isn’t a town in the Netherlands. It means “beaver district”, because there was a trading post for beaver pelts there.
Here’s the full text of the OED’s information about the origins of this word:
First cite:
just a wag here - since hobo’s usually travel via feight trains and hoboken is basically a big rail yard - maybe the bums from NYC who wanted a change of carear got across the river and hopped a freight.
I saw Patti Smith in concert at a street fair/summer festival in Hoboken a couple of years ago.
FWIW, she mentioned the Hoboken/hobo tie-in.
My understanding was that “hobo” was an abbreviation for “home bound” as when the men riding the rails or camping on riverbanks were challenged by local authorities what they were doing, they would plead that they were “homebound.”
Since the OED indicates the origin is from the western US and Hoboken is in the east, it seems unlikely there’s an etymological connection.
I can’t find a link, but Garrison Keillor once explained that the gardening hoe was invented near the end of the civil war, and that destitute confederate veterans who could obtain one turned to wandering the countryside carrying their few belongings in a pack attached to the hoe. The cartoon image of a hobo with his pack on a ‘stick’ developed from this.
These “Hoe Boys” would go door to door and offer to weed gardens or fields in exchange for food, shelter or money.
Almost certainly false.
I realize this is a “zombie” thread, but might as well update it with the latest information.
The word sleuths still haven’t discovered the etymology, at least not the smoking gun. But they have gotten a lot closer.
The earliest cite is now from 1885 and shows the most likely derivation–a cry uttered by the tramps themselves–
Mr. Keillor tells a great story. 
Nothing to back it up.
The relationship is that one is the other’s kin.
Bindles predate the US Civil War (though the word does not). Dick Whittington is typically depicted carrying a bindle as he leaves London, and one such image I’ve seen dates to the 17th century.