hobby-horsey

== English == === Etymology === From hobby horse +‎ -y. === Pronunciation === === Adjective === hobby-horsey (comparative more hobby-horsey, superlative most hobby-horsey) (informal, idiomatic) Eccentrically insular or devoted to a particular topic. 1891, The Critic (volume 18, page 28) 'The Dalzells of Daisydown' are a hobby-horsey family who live in an old, rambling, Virginia-creeper-covered English mansion and keep up fluctuating relations with friends at Newport. Two of them fall in love with the same young lady […] 1999, Stanley Elkin, Boswell: A Modern Comedy (page 59) The reporter's insistence on your emphasis on the sub-scale of ordinary Greeks was a deliberate attempt to offset scientific observations by making them appear hobby-horsey. To provide amusement for weak, fat-ridden office workers. What does an outsider know?