ATDDTA (6) 180-182.10

[Jasper Fidget]

Better:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=mob&searchmode=none

mob <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mob> 
    1688, "disorderly part of the population, rabble," slang shortening
    of mobile, mobility "common people, populace, rabble" (1676), from
    L. mobile vulgus "fickle common people" (1600), from mobile, neut.
    of mobilis "fickle, movable, mobile," from movere "to move" (see
    move <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=move>). In Australia
    and N.Z., used without disparagement for "a crowd." Meaning "gang of
    criminals working together" is from 1839, originally of thieves or
    pick-pockets; Amer.Eng. sense of "organized crime in general" is
    from 1927. The verb meaning "to attack in a mob" is attested from
    1709. Mobster is first attested 1917. Mob scene "crowded place"
    first recorded 1922. Mobocracy "mob rule" is attested from 1754.


Jasper Fidget wrote:
> mobility
> The mob: a sort of opposite to nobility.
> Definition taken from /The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue/, 
> originally by Francis Grose.
>
> http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/m/mobility.html
>
> OED should have a better entry -- now where did I put that thing?
>
> Tore Rye Andersen wrote:
>> bekah:
>>
>>> 182:9 "Little by little the place filled up and turned into a 
>>> hoedown of sorts, and the Kid, or >whoever he was, sort of faded 
>>> into the mobility, and Lew didn't see him again for awhile."
>>>
>>> ** faded into the mobility "Mobility" also appears in Mason & Dixon.
>>
>> - and not only does it appear, it appears at a very significant 
>> juncture - more specifically, the beginning of the final chapter, 
>> when the children are safely tucked into the beds, and all the 
>> preterite waste of Philadelphia begins to percolate through the house:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
>
>