Hobbit-hole

novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from

smoke-hole in the roof, ’twas the rain, a beady slant that hissed on the peats like roasting herrings. 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 7, in The Hobbit, Houghton

iliaj kapoj resaniĝas post dolora frapo. Hobbits are not quite like ordinary people; and after all if their holes are nice cheery places and properly aired

(August 1967 printing), →OCLC, page 15: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy

II, “Why 'The Hobbit' Isn't Outdated in the Age of 'Game of Thrones'”, in The Atlantic‎[1]: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” So began the