hobbit

Etymology 1

Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”). Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblins following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.

noun

1. A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
   It was his thirty-third birthday and already he had […] a little round tummy like a hobbit 2008, Tom Holt, Falling Sideways, Orbit books,, page 3
2. 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.
   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. 2007 September 20, Christopher Joyce, “Case Grows for ‘Hobbit’ as Human Ancestor”, All Things Considered, National Public Radio
   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. 2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 215
   The hobbit became extinct 50,000 years ago, about the time the first humans arrived on Flores, but the Pacific rat lived on. 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 270

Etymology 2

Probably from hoppet, hobbet (“basket”).

noun

1. A Welsh unit of weight, equal to four Welsh pecks, or 168 pounds
2. (archaic) An old unit of volume (2+¹⁄₂ bushels, the volume of 168 pounds of wheat).