It's quite possible that the "hob/fob" rhyme came later and the original
meaning came from the concept that a kettle is something that you "watch". I
don't know which is the true origin.
Here are two more explanations:
"It was commonplace for everyone to wear a pocket watch and chain in the
waistcoat & it was also equally commonplace for the watch to be in the pawn
shop as an interim loan security - however no one was keen for people to
know that this situation was necessary, so the chain would be kept and worn
as normal. In the kitchens of the day the fire would be an open one and
there would be a bar or hook above it from which a length of chain would be
secured and from there the kettle would be suspended above the fire to boil.
So with this in mind, if the pocket watch chain, with no weight on it to
hold it in the pocket, fell out and dangled minus the missing watch, there
would always be some clever Charlie ready to pipe up "What's that for then,
your bleedin' kettle?"
Dave Walker provided the following: The origin of "kettle" comes from
illicit spirit making, distilled in what were large coppers known as
kettles, hence, kettle of scotch = watch. I have always understood this to
be the true origin, and it does rhyme, after all."
http://www.aldertons.com/english-.htm
Usually the true origin is lost in the mists of history, so we'll never know
which of these 4 answers is the right one.
Post by Phil C.On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 11:52:49 -0400, "Jack Denver"
Post by Phil C.I'd guess it was introduced
Post by Phil C.as a deliberately misleading term in case of eavesdroppers.
This is true of almost all Cockney slang - the whole idea is to have a code
that is impenetrable to those outside the group. The rhyming feature is a
mnemonic to make the slang easier to remember.
I don't think it's necessarily rhyming slang. That seems to have
started ca 1840 but only reached its zenith during WWI so "mid C19th"
seems quite early. Rhyming slang is based on obvious pairs and I
wonder how culturally integrated the modern obvious pairing of "kettle
and hob" would have been in the London underworld at that time. Tea
drinking was well established then but spread from the upper classes
down and was associated with the temperance movement. Most water
vessels (including kettle in its broader sense) would just have been
boiled over the fire in poorer areas.
I wonder if "kettle and hob" was invented later to fit an existing
slang expression into the rhyming-slang scheme(?)
--
Phil C.