Meaning

noun the central part of a car wheel (or fan or propeller etc) through which the shaft or axle passes

noun a center of activity or interest or commerce or transportation; a focal point around which events revolve

originFrom earlier hubbe, which has the same immediate origin as hob. Hub was originally a dialectal word; its ultimate origin is unknown. Compare German Hubbel (“bump on a surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hubil (“bump, hill”) (which contains a diminutive suffix *-il); compare English hive, or perhaps ultimately from the same root as hip or hop.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0