hobbitry n.

the cult of hobbits; hobbits collectively, or their qualities

SF Criticism

  • 1944 J. R. R. Tolkien Letter 6 May in H. Carpenter Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1995) 78 J. R. R. Tolkien

    Well, there you are: a hobbit amongst the Urukhai. Keep up your hobbitry in heart, and think that all stories feel like that when you are in them.

  • 1947 C. S. Lewis Essays Presented to Charles Williams 104 C. S. Lewis

    The Hobbit escapes the danger of degenerating into mere plot and excitement by a very curious shift of tone. As the humour and homeliness of the early chapters, the sheer โ€˜Hobbitryโ€™, dies away we pass insensibly into the world of epic.

  • 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Letter 9 Sept. in H. Carpenter Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1995) 184 J. R. R. Tolkien

    There is too much โ€˜hobbitryโ€™ย™ in Vol. I taken by itself; and several critics have obviously not got far beyond Chapter I.

  • 1966 New Statesman 11 Nov. 701/2

    The newest and richest site of hobbitry is the American campus, where students are said to greet each other with hobbitish salutations such as โ€˜May your beard never grow lessโ€™.

Research requirements

antedating 1944
Earliest cite

J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter
Research History
Mark English submitted a cite from a 1944 letter by J.R.R. Tolkien, collected in the 1981 "Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien".

Earliest cite in the OED: 1947.

Last modified 2021-01-20 03:12:41
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.