HOBBY

hobby, a small horse, probably from early quotations, of irish breed, trained to an easy gait so that riding was not fatiguing. the common use of the word is for a favourite pursuit or occupation, with the idea either of excessive devotion or of absence of ulterior motive or of profit, &c., outside the occupation itself. this use is probably not derived from the easy ambling gait of the irish "hobby," but from the "hobby-horse," the mock horse of the old morris-dances, made of a painted wooden horse's head and tail, with a framework casing for an actor's body, his legs being covered by a cloth made to represent the "housings" of the medieval tilting-horse. a hobby or hobby-horse is thus a toy, a diversion. the o. fr. _hobin_, or _hobi_, mod. _aubin_, and ital. _ubina_ are probably adaptations of the english, according to the _new english dictionary_. the o. fr. hober, to move, which is often taken to be the origin of all these words, is the source of a use of "hobby" for a small kind of falcon, _falco subbuteo_, used in hawking.