subs. (American).—1. Boston. Also, HUB OF THE UNIVERSE. [The description is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s.] Since extended to other centres or chief cities (see quot. 1876).
1869. Boston Herald, Dec. He is to have a quintette club of amateurs with him, from THE HUB.
1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. Boston claims to be the HUB of the universe; but New York grandiloquently asserts itself to be the universal wheel itself. Ibid., Dec. The wealth of the HUB OF THE UNIVERSE, as Bostonians delight to call their city, is very great.
1876. Daily News, 18 Jan. Calcutta … swaggers as if it were the HUB OF THE UNIVERSE.
1888. Boston Daily Globe. The typical girl of THE HUB has been much written about in the novels of the period, and without doubt she is worth all the attention bestowed upon her.
2. (colloquial).—A husband. See HUBBY.
