Comments on: Hobo

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:28:50 +0000

I am a hobo. And you guys are silly. “Hobo” is “Homeward Bound”.

By: Yael

Yael — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:11:48 +0000

Interesting theory, but how does that add up the following quote from the article?

>>The term “hobo” is first attested in print in the late 1800s in the Pacific Northwest

Okay, with your grandfather having been born in the late 19th century, the time fits more or less, but why would a term originating from a specific spot in NJ first be recorded all the way across the country? That doesn’t make sense to me.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:01:12 +0000

HoBo is a term for free traveler’s out of HOBOKEN, NJ train yards, my grandfather, born in 1878 was very familiar with those terms as he grew up in Newark and they would knock on his parents door for handouts and his mom would give them bread and soup and he asked them what it meant!! They told him it was were they started their life on the road !

By: Reva

Reva — Tue, 10 May 2011 01:36:19 +0000

“why cats stare at blank walls (they’re messing with your mind)” Everyone should know when cats stare they are looking at Muskies…a type of creature that humans can’t see, but, can, in fact, smell.
If you suddenly get a whiff of bacon, coffee or cow manure for no discernible reason…you are near a Muskie.

By: Fox

Fox — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:54:33 +0000

Such as they are, I propose HOmeless BOdy as a government term crassly appointed to one of countless epidemics spawned out of their own choices made to promote capitalism.

By: tubby

tubby — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:49:19 +0000

I didn’t hear the NPR segment and those people are generally right on but I always understood hobo to suggest a more aimless, somewhat work adverse wandering person. How many people were there making short work with hoes? How much hoe work was needed such that there were so many people making short term work out of it? And in a much less mobile time, how many people observed hoe work occuring? Sickles maybe but hoes? I think it is simpler than that: homeless body

By: jplant

jplant — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:06:55 +0000

Having grown-up “behind the tweed curtain”… in Victoria, BC, Canada, I can assure you that more than a wee bit of “Olde England” was thriving in the Pacific Northwest during the 1800′s. I would place my bet on ‘hawbaw’ as being the origin of Hobo.

By: junglebum

junglebum — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:23:25 +0000

I’ve recently heard the term “outdoorsmen” used in place of “homeless person” on local talk radio. I didn’t hear the whole conversation or where they got it, but they are using it regularly now to talk about the homeless on the streets of Chicago. I have heard the that “hobo” is derived from “homeward bound”.

By: waco_huber

waco_huber — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:21:02 +0000

I, too, have heard that the term is derived from “hoe boy”. I believe this was in a story on NPR one to two years back.

By: bxdanny

bxdanny — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:31:07 +0000

I had always heard that “hobo” derived from “hoe boy”, meaning an itinerant agricultural worker (who typically used a hoe in his labors). I thought it was pretty much settled – certainly I am surprised that you didn’t even mention this theory.