subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.
1589. GREENE, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. ARBER, 1880]. These Arcadians are giuen to take the benefit of euerie HODGE.
1675. MARVELL, Satire. HODGE’S Vision from the Monument [Title].
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HODGE, a Country Clown, also Roger.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1791. C. SMART, Fables, xiii., 27. Is that the care (quoth HODGE)? O rare!
1880. R. JEFFERIES, HODGE and his Masters [Title].
1884. CRAIK, in The English Illustrated Magazine, March, p. 356. Quite different from the bovine, agricultural HODGE of the midland counties.
1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 358. ‘Pay me an infinitesimal sum,’ Lord Winchilsea says (in effect) to HODGE, ‘and you shall have a weekly newspaper for nothing.’
