HOBBY  , a small

horse, probably from early quotations, of Irish breed, trained to an easy gait so that riding was not fatiguing . The common use of the word is for a favourite pursuit or occupation, with the idea either of excessive devotion or of absence of ulterior motive or of profit, &c., outside the occupation itself . This use is probably not derived from the easy ambling gait of the Irish " hobby," but from the " hobby-horse," the mock horse of the old morris-dances, made of a painted wooden horse's head and tail, with a framework casing for an actor's body, his legs being covered by a cloth made to represent the " housings " of the medieval tilting-horse . A hobby or hobby-horse is thus a toy, a diversion . 'The O . Fr. hobin, or hohi, Mod. aubin, and Ital. ubina are probably adaptations of the English, according to the New English Dictionary . The O . Fr. hober, to move, which is often taken to be the origin of all these words, is the source of a use of " hobby " for a small kind of falcon, falco subbuteo, used in hawking .