Question: I need someone from across the pond to help settle an argument between me and my wife. In the episode "i Rock the Vote", Wade Collins repeatedly uses the term "hob knocker." My kids asked, "What's a 'hob knocker'?" I said that it was something they made up that sounds somewhat British, probably insulting, and possibly vulgar. My wife insists that she has heard it somewhere else. So, for the record, what, if anything, does "hob knocker" mean?
GalahadFairlight
16th Apr 2009
Answer: In direction translation it means 'Mischievous Spirit'. 'Hob' as in HobGoblin means clown or prankster, and 'Knocker' was an old age term for Poltergeists in mines. Miners would often complain of hearing knocking sounds down mines when there was no-one else down there, hence 'Knocker'. It's not a regular English expression though.
GalahadFairlight