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Hobbit vs Imp - What's the difference?

hobbit | imp |

As a noun hobbit

is hobbit.

As an initialism imp is

inosine monophosphate.

hobbit

English

(Encyclopedic etymology) (wikipedia hobbit)

Etymology 1

The word hobbit has an unknown origin. However, as designating a diminutive legendary creature, it fits seamlessly into a category of English words in hob- for such beings. The Middle English word hobbe has manifested in many creatures of folklore as the prefix hob-. Related words are : hob, hobby, hobgoblin, Hobberdy Dick, Hobberdy, Hobbaty, hobbidy, Hobley, hobbledehoy, hobble, hobi, hobyn (small horse), hobby horse (perhaps from Hobin), Hobin (variant of the name Robin), Hobby (nickname for Robert), hobyah, Hob Lantern. The only source known today that makes reference to hobbits in any sort of historical context is the Denham Tracts by Michael Aislabie Denham. More specifically, it appears in the Denham Tracts, edited by James Hardy, (London: Folklore Society, 1895), vol. 2, the second part of a two-volume set compiled from Denham's publications between 1846 and 1859. The text contains a long list of sprites and bogies, based on an older list, the Discovery of Witchcraft, dated 1584, with many additions and a few repetitions. The term hobbit is listed in the context of boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies. The most famous use comes from in 1937, featuring in the novels The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Ostensibly from a hypothetical (etyl) ''*holbytla "hole-builder".

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
  • * 2008 , , Falling Sideways , Orbit books, ISBN 1-84149-110-1, p. 3:
    • It was his thirty-third birthday and already he had a little round tummy like a hobbit
  • An extinct species of hominin, Homo floresiensis , with a short body and relatively small brain, fossils of which have been recovered from the Indonesian island of Flores.
  • * 2007 September 20, Christopher Joyce, “Case Grows for ‘Hobbit’ as Human Ancestor”, All Things Considered , National Public Radio:
    • Although partial remains of other Hobbits have surfaced at the same site, they say it could have been an isolated colony of inbred people who shared the same genetic abnormalities.
  • * 2011 , (Chris Stringer), The Origin of Our Species , Penguin 2012, p. 215:
    • And in the island regions of southeast Asia, where the descendants of erectus , and the Hobbit , and any similar relict populations lived, climate changes would have greatly disrupted connections between regions and populations, as sea levels rose and fell by 100 metres or more.

    See also

    * halfling

    Etymology 2

    Probably from hoppet, hobbet, (a basket).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A Welsh unit of weight, equal to four Welsh pecks, or 168 pounds
  • (archaic) An old unit of volume (2½ bushels, the volume of 168 pounds of wheat).
    • ----

    imp

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A young shoot of a plant, tree etc.
  • * Sir Orfeo , 69:
    • Þai sett hem doun al þre / Vnder a fair ympe-tre.
  • (obsolete) A scion, offspring; a child.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene I.3:
    • And thou most dreaded impe of highest Ioue'', / Faire ''Venus sonne, [...] come to mine ayde [...].
  • * Fairfax
    • The tender imp was weaned.
  • A young or inferior devil; a malevolent supernatural creature, similar to a demon but smaller and less powerful.
  • * Beattie
    • to mingle in the clamorous fray of squabbling imps
  • A mischievous child.
  • * 1908 ,
    • I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist...
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) Something added to, or united with, another, to lengthen it out or repair it, such as an addition to a beehive; a feather inserted in a broken wing of a bird; or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line.

    • Synonyms

    * (mischievous child) brat, urchin, little dickens

    Derived terms

    * impish * implike

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To plant or engraft.
  • (archaic) To graft, implant; to set or fix.
  • *1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.9:
  • *:That headlesse tyrants tronke he reard from ground, / And, having ympt the head to it agayne, / Upon his usuall beast it firmely bound, / And made it so to ride as it alive was found.
  • (falconry) To engraft feathers into a bird's wing.
    • "For, if I imp my wing on Thine" – Herbert (1633)
  • To eke out, strengthen, enlarge.

    • Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) * (l)