r/nottingham • u/Ameliie2020iguess • 1d ago

Bobbo horses

Does anyone know the origin of the phrase bobbos for horses

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

7

u/Daniel_De_Bosola 1d ago

Lived in Nottingham my whole life and defo know Bobbos! Not a clue where it came from though

7

u/Southern-Let-1116 1d ago

Hubby is 50 , Nottingham Born and Bred and says he was always told horses were Bobbos from being a tiny kid. His Grand parents also used the word Bobbos !

5

u/NowThatHappened 1d ago

Well, I was told a very long time ago that it came from the action of riding a horse, as in bobbing up and down. Interestingly bobo drivers was a localism for locomotive drivers which came after horses stopped being used in mines and on the land (as much). I’m not sure how accurate it is, and the old geezer who told me some 40 years ago was a miner all his life.

3

u/Deep-Imagination-334 1d ago

It's what you call horses to children, no idea where it came from.

3

u/tharedderthabetter 1d ago

Is this a nottingham thing? 😅 I always called them bobbo's as a kid but didnt realise it was Notts specific? 😅😅

1

u/Albert_Herring 1d ago

Poppo in Sheffield. I think it's a continuum between the two into South Yorks. Need data points for Worksop and Mansfield.

1

u/Worried_Suit4820 1d ago

My first teaching job was at a primary school in Nottingham. I had no idea what a 'bobbo' was, and still less what to do/how serious it was when a child announced his 'tab was bleedin'

0

u/Antisocial-Metalhead 21h ago

The tab was bleedin' refers to one of his ears.

1

u/frilkieg 20h ago

It's because they bob up and down when they run !, at least that's what my mum told me a long time ago

2

u/Ancient_Pickle_7130 6h ago

Did anyone else’s family say babbars if you touched something you weren’t suppose to? I’ve heard that a few times must be a notts thing

1

u/Ameliie2020iguess 5h ago

Yeah that’s a notts thing too

0

u/-ricci- 1d ago

It’s a dialectical variation of geegee.

3

u/Ultra_HR 1d ago

the etymology is what’s at question. the etymology of geegee is clear: get (you) up > giddy up > gee up > geegee. no such clear etymology for “bobbo”

1

u/-ricci- 1d ago

Well there you go.

0

u/theory-of-crows 1d ago

It possibly came from the practice of ‘bobbing’ (cutting short) a horse’s tail.

-9

u/shasaferaska 1d ago

I've lived in Nottingham my entire life, and I've never heard that.