Jimmy Hoffa

14 8.4

An American union leader and president of the Teamsters who disappeared in 1975 and is believed murdered

proper noun
/ˈdʒɪmi ˈhɑːfə/

: Jimmy Hoffa

As president of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa became one of America’s most powerful labor leaders.

Examples

Many books and films have explored the mysterious case of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance.
The fate of Jimmy Hoffa remains one of the great unsolved mysteries in American history.
As president of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa became one of America’s most powerful labor leaders.
The story of Jimmy Hoffa remains a mystery.
Many theories surround Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance.
Many books and films have explored the mysterious case of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance.
The fate of Jimmy Hoffa remains one of the great unsolved mysteries in American history.

Surface Forms

Jimmy Hoffa main

Morphology

Jimmy + Hoffa

This is a proper name referring to a specific historical person; the constituent tokens 'Jimmy' and 'Hoffa' do not carry compositional semantic information that would indicate his identity or biography. Understanding who Jimmy Hoffa was requires encyclopedic/cultural knowledge rather than knowing the meanings of the parts, so a B1 learner could not derive the MWE's meaning from its constituents.

Etymology

Jimmy Hoffa was a powerful American union leader who ran the Teamsters and who vanished in 1975 after time in prison and suspected ties to the mob. That's why Jimmy Hoffa's name now often makes people think of a 'mysterious disappearance' or an 'unsolved crime'.