• n. 嗜好；業余愛好
• n. (Hobby)人名；(英)霍比

縮寫自hobby-horse,玩具馬，竹馬，詞源同hop,跳。原指兒童玩的騎馬游戲，引申詞義業余愛好。比較詩句“郎騎竹馬來，繞床弄青梅”。

hobby

hobby: Hobby in the sense ‘pastime’ is short for hobbyhorse. This originated in the 16th century as a term for the figure of a horse used in morris dances: the element hobby, used since the 14th century for a ‘small horse’, was derived from Hob, a pet form of the man’s name Robert or Robin which survives also in hobgoblin [16]. From the morris-dance hobbyhorse was descended the toy hobbyhorse, a stick with a horse’s head on top; and the notion of ‘riding a hobbyhorse’, which could not actually take you anywhere, passed metaphorically into ‘doing something only for amusement’ – hence the meaning ‘pastime’, first recorded for hobbyhorse in the 17th century and for the shortened hobby in the early 19th century. Hobby ‘bird of prey’ [15] comes from Old French hobet, a diminutive form of hobe ‘small bird of prey’, whose origins are not known.
=> hobbyhorse, hobgoblin

hobby (n.)

late 13c., hobyn, "small horse, pony," later "mock horse used in the morris dance," and c. 1550 "child's toy riding horse," which led to hobby-horse in a transferred sense of "favorite pastime or avocation," first recorded 1670s, shortened to hobby by 1816. The connecting notion being "activity that doesn't go anywhere." Probably originally a proper name for a horse (see dobbin), a diminutive of Robert or Robin. The original hobbyhorse was a "Tourney Horse," a wooden or basketwork frame worn around the waist and held on with shoulder straps, with a fake tail and horse head attached, so the wearer appears to be riding a horse. These were part of church and civic celebrations at Midsummer and New Year's throughout England.

1. It is only a hobby, not a life or death struggle.

這只是一項愛好，不需要拼死拼活地努力。

來自柯林斯例句

2. His secret hobby: performing magic tricks.

他私底下有變戲法的嗜好。

來自柯林斯例句

3. Find a hobby or interest which enthuses you.

培養一個自己喜歡的愛好或興趣。

來自柯林斯例句

4. His hobby is freefall parachuting.

他的業余愛好是自由落體式跳傘。

來自柯林斯例句

5. Honesty is a favourite hobby-horse for Courau.

誠信是庫羅最喜歡談論的一個話題。

來自柯林斯例句