bobbery

Uncertain; occurs earliest in British thieves' cant and Chinese Pidgin English, as well as extensively throughout British dialect. In origin, unrelated to the Anglo-Indian exclamation.^[1]

bobbery (plural bobberies)

1. (dated) A squabble; a tumult; a noisy disturbance.
   • 1795, H.T. Potter, A New Dictionary Of All The Cant And Flash Languages:

     bobbery: a disturbance.

   • 1834, ‘Jack Downing’, Andrew Jackson, page 228:

     They’d’ve kick’d up a rale bubbery, and’ve thrown the fat intu the fire in a jump.

   • 1840 December 4, Francis J. Bellew, “Memoirs of a Griffin”, in The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, page 228:

     Another and another followed, till, at last, the unwieldy bank, amidst an awful bobbery, swung high and dry on the shelving beach; and out we all sprung, right glad once more to feel ourselves on terra firma.

   • 1942 December 2, The Bulletin, Sydney, page 22, column 1:

     Efficient in a devilish way, he allows troops to slip by and makes a dead set for their officers, using small pockets of scouts to kick up a maximum bobbery, so that those advancing to the attack believe they have been set on by battalions instead of sections.

• bobbery pack

Alteration of Hindi बाप रे (bāp re, “O father!”).^[2]

bobbery

1. (Anglo-Indian, obsolete) Oh dear! Alas! Good lord!
   • 1884 February 5, The South Australian Register, Adelaide, page 1, column 1:

     Thus the British and Colonial Courts are comparatively empty compared with the Indian Court and jewellery room, which are invariably crowded - so much so that special precautions have to be taken with regard to the latter, only a few being admitted at a time, and they stare at gaudy pictures and glittering jewellery and at the gold brocades and brilliant silks and cloths of their own country and cry "Bapré" or, as it is generally known, "Bobbery," in admiration[.]

   • 1908 September 5, The Evening Journal, Adelaide, page 6, column 2:

     "Hullo!" said Col. Wingate, of the Dogras, who had just entered the stand, "another Carr-Jones spoof? By Jove, it isn't Carr-Jones; it's Polhill and Ulmun! Oh! bobbery: here, I'll lay a hundred to one in gold mohurs against the griffs!"

• bobbery-bob