• Hobson-Jobson is a unique lexicon of British India, part dictionary, part social history, a hugely entertaining compilation of words and phrases, here published for the first time with an introduction and notes that shed light on the book’s origins, influence, and cultural significance.
• A classic work of Victorian scholarship, the glossary unlocks the Raj through its language and is the perfect introduction to colonial attitudes and companion to Indian literature from Kipling to Salman Rushdie.
• The introduction traces the book’s creation, reception, and literary influence, revealing its influence on the Oxford English Dictionary and the attitudes that influenced the choice of entries and their treatment.
• Notes explain historical and cultural references and reveal how the glossary both reinforces and challenges Indian stereotypes.
• This selected edition preserves the range and idiosyncratic nature of the original, focusing on entries of particular cultural, historical, and literary interest.

Hobson-Jobson is a unique work of maverick scholarship. Compiled in 1886 by two India enthusiasts, it documents the words and phrases that entered English from Arabic, Persian, Indian, and Chinese sources – and vice versa. Described by Salman Rushdie as ‘the legendary dictionary of British India’ it shows how words of Indian origin were absorbed into the English language and records not only the vocabulary but the culture of the Raj. It encompasses aspects of the history, trade, peoples, and geography of Asia in entries that are at once authoritative and playful. Like the Oxford English Dictionary, Hobson-Jobson included illustrative quotations that were drawn from a wide range of travel texts, histories, memoirs, and novels, creating a canon of English writing about India. The definitions frequently slip into anecdote, reminiscence, and digression, and they offer intriguing insights into Victorian attitudes to India and its people and customs.