E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Hub.
The nave of a wheel; a boss; also a skid. (Welsh, hob, a swelling, a protuberance; compare also a hwb.) The Americans call Boston, Massachusetts, “The hub [boss] of the solar system.”
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“Boston State-house is the hub of the solar system.”—Holmes: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, chap. vi. p. 143.
“Calcutta swaggers as if it were the hub of the universe.”—Daily News, 1886.
