Ballad of John de Reeve, 226.
Hobby. The ‘hobby’ being the ambling nag ridden for pleasure, and then the child’s toy in imitation of the same, had in these senses nearly passed out of use, when the word revived, by a very natural transfer, in the sense which it now has, of a favourite pursuit which carries a man easily and pleasantly forward.
They have likewise excellent good horses (we term them hobbies), which have not the same pace that other horses in their course, but a soft and round amble, setting one leg before another very finely.—Holland, Camden’s Ireland, p. 63.
King Agesilaus, having a great sort of little children, was one day disposed to solace himself among them in a gallery where they played, and took a little hobby-horse of wood, and bestrid it.—Puttenham, Art of English Poesy, b. iii. c. 24.
A hobby-horse, or some such pretty toy,
A rattle would befit you better, boy.
Randolph, Poems, p. 19.
Homely. The etymology of ‘homely’ which Milton puts into the mouth of Comus,
‘It is for homely features to keep home;
They had their name hence,’