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The dated noun jobation designates a rebuke, a reprimand, especially a lengthy and tedious one.
This noun occurred, for example, in a letter to the Editor, by one Frank Steel, published in The Esher News and Advertiser (Esher, Surrey, England) of 9th March 1956 [page 4, column 8]:
Sir,—This is the first occasion on which I have received the distinction of an editorial jobation in print, but, unrepentant, I return to the attack by calling your own attention to the article to which you have invited mine.
The noun jobation is from:
– the obsolete transitive verb job, meaning to rebuke, reprimand in a long and tedious harangue;
– the suffix -ation, used to form nouns of action.
The verb job alludes to the lengthy reproofs addressed to Job by his friends in the book of the Old Testament that bears his name.
—Cf. the phrase Job’s comforter, which designates a person who aggravates distress under the guise of administering comfort.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the verb job that I have found:
1-: From Piazza Universale di Proverbi Italiani: Or, A Common Place of Italian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. Digested in Alphabetical Order by way of Dictionary. Interpreted, and occasionally Illustrated with Notes. Together with a Supplement of Italian Dialogues (London: Printed by F. and T. W. for the Author, 1666), by Giovanni Torriano [Notes relating to the Proverbs of the letter Z: page 325, column 2]:
10 As much as to say, Whist, mum to that, no more of that, not a word of the pudding, if you love me; Here are Fathers who will over-hear us, and Jobe us.
2-: From A Collection of English Proverbs Digested into a convenient Method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion; with Short Annotations. Whereunto are added Local Proverbs with their Explications, Old Proverbial Rhythmes, Less known or Exotick Proverbial Sentences, and Scottish Proverbs (Cambridge: Printed by John Hayes, Printer to the University, for W. Morden, 1670), by the English naturalist and theologian John Ray (1627-1705) [Proverbial Similies: page 207]:
62. As poor as Job.
62. This similitude runs through most languages: In the University of Cambridge, the young scholars are wont to call chiding Jobing.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun jobation that I have found:
1-: From a letter, dated Madrid, 1st August 1687, that John Smith, Chaplain to Lord Lansdowne, who was then Ambassador at Madrid, wrote to Denis Granville (1637-1703), Dean of Durham from 1684 to 1690—letter published in The Remains of Denis Granville, D.D., Dean and Archdeacon of Durham, &c.: Being a further Selection from his Correspondence, Diaries, and other Papers (Durham: Published for the Surtees Society by Andrews & Co., 1865) [letter 71, page 137]:
This day 12 moneth I came to Madrid, since which time I have almost every post long’d for a letter of directions in form to steer by, and truly, Sir, had I thought it so hard to obtain, I would have secur’d it before I came from you. But now I hope you will pardon my continuall importunity till I receive it, for it would be great help to me in doing my errand thorowly where now I act by guesse, and if it happen at my return that either forgetfullnesse or ignorance occasion the leaving any part of your commands undone I shall indeed have lesse blame, but I had far rather venture to be liable to a jobation for not having done my part, then be excusable by want of due instructions, for that will make the failure double.
2-: From The Case of Mr. Michael Peach: Or, A Faithful Relation of the Hardships he has lately met with at Dartmouth (Exon: Printed by Sam. Farley, for Philip Yeo, 1714), by Michael Peach, “Minister of St. Petrox, and Master of the Free-School in Dartmouth” [Part the Fourth: page 15]:
These were the Transactions at their Sessions the first Day, and tho’ I had nothing to do but to enter into Recognisance on Account of the Certiorari, and to give Security for bringing down the Trial at the Assizes, which might have been done almost in a Moment of Time, yet Mr. Newman to shew his Authority, to create me Trouble, and to give me another Jobation, made me attend the next Day at the Hall […].
’Twould tire the Readers Patience to relate all the Abuses I receiv’d at the Hall. Mr. Newman there declar’d that l went to Church to serve the Devil; That I was the worst of Clergy-Men, call’d me Lyer, Villain, Rascal, &c. and to justifie all these Insults, affirm’d, he had Authority to abuse me (he meant, I suppose, he was a Justice of Peace, and as such it behov’d him to break it, to swagger and call Names, and behave himself quite different from a Gentleman, or a Person of tolerable good Breeding).
3-: From the Stamford Mercury (Stamford, Lincolnshire, England) of 23rd June 1715 [page 293]:
From Cambridge we hear, That some of the Scholars got together to a Tavern on the same Day, drank the aforesaid Health, illuminated the Windows, and rais’d a great Disturbance; but Notice being given of this Affair, one or two were expell’d; four or five were rusticated; and some others, who were thought least concern’d in the Contrivance, escap’d with severe Jobations.
4-: From the following dialogue between Freehold and Modely, in The Country Lasses: Or, The Custom of the Manor (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1735), by the English playwright Charles Johnson (1679-1748) [Act 4, scene 2, page 74]—this play had first been printed for Jacob Tonson in 1715:
Free. A Gentleman ought not to dare to think of doing Wrong to any—His Love, his Friendship, his Courage, his Generosity, his Religion, his Word, and his Honour, shou’d be inviolably bound to the strict Laws of Virtue.
Mode. This may be the Picture of a Saint; but for the Character of a fine Gentleman, ’tis as unlike it, my Dear—
Free. As you are—Your Love, is Lust; your Friendship, Interest; your Courage, brutal Butchery; your Bounty, Usury; your Religion, Hypocrisy; your Word, a Lye; and your Honour, a Jest.
Mode. Ha, ha, very concise and smart; but I take nothing ill of thee: Thou art like a frosty Morning, sharp and wholesom. Dear, Sir, your most obedient Servant; You see I have stood your Jobation very patiently—and so Compliments being pass’d on both Sides, I humbly take my leave.
A variant of jobation, the noun jawbation was probably coined after the verb jaw, attested since the mid-18th century as slang for the verb speak.
The earliest occurrence of the noun jawbation that I have found is from Slang. A Dictionary of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, the Pit, of Bon-ton, and the Varieties of Life, Forming the Completest and Most Authentic Lexicon Balatronicum Hitherto Offered to the Notice of the Sporting World (London: Printed for T. Hughes, 1823), by the British author and journalist Jon Bee (John Badcock – fl. 1810-1830) [page 104]:
Jawbation—a set-to of several. See Clapper-claw.
The definition of the noun clapper-claw is as follows in the same dictionary [page 51]:
Clapper—the tongue. ‘Stop your clapper’—i.e. Silence! Clapper-claw. Domestic prattle in St. Giles’s, in which a woman or two join to tell a third (usually the husband) a little bit of his own.
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