Hodge
(hɒdʒ)
Also 4 Hogge, 5 Hoge, 6 Hodg.
[Abbreviated and altered from Roger, like Hob from Robert, Hick from Richard.]
1. A familiar by-form and abbreviation of the name Roger; used as a typical name for the English agricultural labourer or rustic.
| c 1386 Chaucer Cook's Prol. 12 Euer siþþe I highte hogge of ware. [Ibid. 21 Oure host seyde I graunt it the, Now telle on, Roger.] 1483 Cath. Angl. 187/1 Hoge, Rogerus, nomen proprium. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 58 These Arcadians are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hodge, a Country Clown, also Roger. 1794 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Wks. III. 350 No more shall Hodge's prong and shovel start. 1826 in Hone Everyday Bk. II. 1210 You seem to think that with the name I retain all the characteristics..of a hodge. 1885 Observer 13 Dec. 5/3 The conduct of Hodge in the recent election. |
2. (See quots.) Cf. haggis.
| 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Work-bk., Hodge, the large paunch in a pig. 1884 Chesh. Gloss., Hodge, the stomach of a pig, cleaned out and eaten as tripe. |
3. Jolly Hodge (also Jolly Roger), the pirate's flag bearing the Death's Head and Cross-bones.
| 1822 Scott Pirate xl, Up goes the Jolly Hodge, the old black flag, with the death's-head and hour-glass. |
4. Comb., as Hodge-razor, a razor made to sell to Hodge: see Peter Pindar's Wks. (1794) I. 151; hence, in Carlyle, anything made to sell; a sham.
| 1843 Carlyle Dr. Francia in Misc. Ess. (1872) VII. 48 Hodge-razors, in all conceivable kinds, were openly marketed, ‘which were never meant to shave, but only to be sold!’ |