Hobson's choice

Dictionary: Hob·son's choice (hŏb'sənz) pronunciation

An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative.

[After Thomas Hobson (1544?-1630), English keeper of a livery stable, from his requirement that customers take either the horse nearest the stable door or none.]

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Wordsmith Words: Hobson's choice

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(HOB-sonz chois)
noun

An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative.

[After Thomas Hobson (1544?-1630), English keeper of a livery stable, from his requirement that customers take either the horse nearest the stable door or none.]

Usage:

"Such situations essentially confront families with a Hobson's choice: either they stand by and allow a loved one to waste away, or else they act to hasten death, with all the guilt and recrimination that entails." — Nancy Gibbs, Love and Let Die, In an era of untamed medical technology, how are patients and families to decide whether to halt treatment, Time, 19 Mar 1990.

Idioms: Hobson's choice

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An apparently free choice that actually offers no alternative. For example, My dad said if I wanted the car I could have it tonight or not at all--that's Hobson's choice. This expression alludes to Thomas Hobson of Cambridge, England, who rented horses and allowed each customer to take only the horse nearest the stable door. [Mid-1600s]

Dictionary of Dance: Hobson's Choice

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Ballet in three acts with choreography by Bintley, music by Paul Reade, and design by H. Griffen. Premiered 13 Feb. 1989 by Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, London, with Karen Donovon and Michael O'Hare. It is based on Harold Brighouse's play of the same title and dedicated to de Valois: For Madam—an ‘English Ballet’. Set in Salford, Lancashire, this comic satire on the English class system tells the story of Maggie, daughter of the wealthy but drunken boot-shop proprietor Hobson, and Will Mossop the lowly boot-hand whom she marries. Bintley's realistic evocation of Northern life is paralleled by the naturalistic detail of both design and score.

Obscure Words: Hobson's choice

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the option of taking the one thing offered or nothing [after Thomas Hobson (1544-1630), English keeper of a livery stable, from his requirement that customers take either the horse nearest the stable door or none]
(also, rhyming slang for voice)

Wikipedia: Hobson's choice

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This article is about an English-language expression. For other uses, see Hobson's choice (disambiguation).

Thomas Hobson

A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one option is offered, and one may refuse to take that option. The choice is therefore between taking the option or not; "take it or leave it." The phrase is said to originate from Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner at Cambridge, England. To rotate the use of his horses he offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door or taking none at all.

Cambridge Guildhall has a donated portrait of Thomas Hobson. A plaque underneath the painting describes in a little detail how his livery came to be and the origin of the word. To add to the above, he had an extensive stable of some 40 horses and therefore there appeared to be a wide choice when in fact there was simply the choice described above.

Hobson's choice is different from:

a choice between limited options
Blackmail and extortion— the choice between paying money (or other economic good) and suffering an unpleasant action
False dilemma— only two choices are considered, when in fact there are others
Catch-22 and Morton's Fork— all choices yield equivalent, often undesirable, results

1 Early appearances in writing
2 Modern use
3 References
4 See also

Early appearances in writing

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of this phrase is in The rustick's alarm to the Rabbies, written by Samuel Fisher in 1660:

"If in this Case there be no other (as the Proverb is) then Hobson's choice ... which is, chuse whether you will have this or none."

It also appears in Joseph Addison's paper The Spectator (October 14, 1712); and in Thomas Ward's 1688 poem "England's Reformation", not published until after Ward's death. Ward wrote:

"Where to elect there is but one, / 'Tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none."

Modern use

Hobson's choice is often misused to mean a false illusion of choice, but it is not a choice between two undesirable options, which is a Morton's Fork. Such a choice between two options of nearly equal value is more properly called a dilemma. Hobson's choice is one between something or nothing.

On occasion, speakers and writers use the phrase "Hobbesian choice" instead of "Hobson's choice". They confuse the philosopher Thomas Hobbes with the relatively obscure Thomas Hobson.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Notwithstanding that confused usage, the phrase, "Hobbesian choice" is historically incorrect.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

In American politics, Presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes coined the tongue-in-cheek phrase "Dobson's Choice" (mildly criticizing Dr. James Dobson) to highlight the dilemma conservative voters face in a two-party political system while choosing to endorse the lesser of two evils. ^[9]

Henry Ford was said to have sold the Ford Model T with the famous Hobson's choice of "... any color ... so long as it is black".^[10] In reality, the Model T was available in a modest palette of colors, but the rapid production required quick-drying paint, which from 1915-25 was available in only one color—black.

References

^ Hobbes, Thomas. 1651. Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil. Reprint, New York: Viking Press, 1982.
^ Dyzenhaus, David. 2001. "Hobbes and the Legitimacy of Law." Law and Philosophy 20 (September): 461–8.
^ Martinich, A.P. 1999. Hobbes: A Biography. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press
^ http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/183300.html
^ http://www.reference.com/search?q=hobson's%20choice
^ http://boaltalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-lexico-neuroticism_27.html
^ http://www.volokh.com/2003_06_08_volokh_archive.html#200408984
^ Oxford English Dictionary, Editor: "Amazingly, some writers have confused the obscure Thomas Hobson with his famous contemporary, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. The resulting malapropism is beautifully grotesque" Bryan Garner, "A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage" Second Edition, 404-405 (Oxford University Press 1995).
^ http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71830
^ Ford, Henry. "IV". My Life and Work. ISBN 978-0766127746. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/hnfrd10.txt.

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		Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
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		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hobson's choice". Read more

	Hobson's Choice (1953 Comedy Drama Film)
	Paul Reade (person)
	Hobson's Choice (Rock Band, 2000s)

Hobson's choice

Contents

Early appearances in writing

Modern use

References

See also