hobnob

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to associate or socialize familiarly, especially with important or high-status people

   At the reception, young reporters hobnobbed with senior diplomats.

2. 2
   verb

   archaic: to drink or toast together

   The old friends hobnobbed over a bottle beside the fire.

3. 3
   noun

   archaic: an informal social chat or a drinking together

   Their evening hobnob continued long after the inn had closed.

Simplified etymology

Hobnob grew from the drinking formula hob or nob or hob and nob, probably meaning “give or take” or “have or have not.” This apparently reflects Middle English hab and nab, “to have and not have”; to drink hob or nob became simply to hobnob in the mid-18th century, later acquiring the sense of talking or associating familiarly.

From hob or nob, a drinking invitation meaning roughly "give or take" or "have or have not," related to dialectal hab nab and ultimately Old English habban ("to have") and nabban ("not to have"). The sequence moved from taking turns in a toast, to drinking together, and then to familiar social association.

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External links

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