hobbitlike adj.

like a hobbit

  • 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Letter 25 Apr. in H. Carpenter Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981) 180 J. R. R. Tolkien

    Since Sam was close friends of the family of Cotton (another village-name), I was led astray into the Hobbit-like joke of spelling Gamwichy Gamgee, though I do not think that in actual Hobbit-dialect the joke really arose.

  • 1998 G. Child Thin Air 36

    On a windy afternoon, we found the most reclusive of the old hermits sitting crosslegged outside his hobbitlike dwelling.

  • 2001 J. Chance Lord of Rings: Mythology of Power 120

    Even so, Gollum addresses himself as Smeagol, the name of his better (Hobbitlike) side invoked by Master Frodo.

  • 2007 D. Rendall et al. Homologizing the Mind in Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology 61/1

    All else being equal, a recent, even hobbit-like, species of human should be a lot like us.

Research requirements

any evidence 1954
Earliest cite

J.R.R. Tolkien, letter to Naomi Mitchison
Research History
Mark English submitted a cite in a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Naomi Mitchison (Humphrey Carpenter's edition of the letters also has several other examples of "hobbitlike" from Tolkien).
Katrina Campbell submitted a 1998 cite from "Thin Air" by Greg Child.
Katrina Campbell submitted a 2001 cite from "The Lord of the Rings: the mythology of power" by Jane Chance.
Adam Buchbinder submitted a 2007 cite for "hobbit-like" from an article, "Homologising the Mind" in the "Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology"

We would be interested in any earlier use by Tolkien, and any use of the term by other writers, of any date.

Last modified 2022-02-14 15:15:03
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.