Writes Rex Parker about today's NYT crossword, which clued "hooha" as "Big to-do."
Anyway... my dictionary, the unlinkable OED, defines "hooha" with one meaning only, "A commotion, a rumpus, a row." Historical examples include:
1931 Punch 14 Oct. 402/1 The devil of a hoo-ha in the papers about increasing the demand for English-grown corn....Then there's the unique usage by T.S. Eliot (in Sweeney Agonistes (1932)): "When you're alone in the middle of the night and you wake in a sweat and a hell of a fright/When you're alone in the middle of the bed and you wake like someone hit you on the head/You've had a cream of a nightmare dream and you've got the hoo-ha's coming to you . . . And perhaps you're alive/And perhaps you're dead Hoo ha ha Hoo ha ha Hoo Hoo Hoo."
1944 ‘N. Shute’ Pastoral ix. 206 There's a bit of a hoo-hah on about your tea-party....
1971 Country Life 27 May 1328/2 Some of these lovely irises may..be grown..successfully without much hoo-ha.
Now, you might think Urban Dictionary would confirm your belief — what I'm assuming is your belief — that the primary meaning of "hooha" is female genitalia.
But no! It's: "Diddy Kong's Down-Throw + Up-Air combo in Super Smash Brothers 4. When Diddy Kong throws his opponent down everyone will yell "HOO". It is then followed by a loud 'HA' once he connects with the Up-Air. It was made to annoy the person playing against the Diddy Kong, thus making them extra salty."
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32 comments:
Mad Dog Russo (sports guy beloved for getting words wrong) thought hubaloo was a big todo.
So far hubaloo hasn't meant female genitalia so would be safe to use.
My first acquaintance with Hooha was in Mad Magazine in the 1950's. It was a Yiddish-tinged exclamation.
You know us too well, Ann. Speaking of Yiddish-tinged exclamations, how about "knish" as an alternative?
I was introduced to Eliot through a novel by Russell Kirk called The Lord of the Hollow Dark which I read when I was 13. It's a supernatural horror story about the leader of a sex and witchcraft cult who plans to trade the souls of his followers for vast earthly power. To carry out his evil scheme he invites his chosen victims to a Scottish castle ( in fact a fortified manor house) allegedly haunted by the ghosts of its former lord and his followers who were entombed alive in a maze of catacombs deep beneath the castle's foundations.
Each of the castle guests is given an alias taken from the writings of T. S. Eliot. One, a serial rapist, is known to the others as Sweeney. It's pretty clear from the narrative that Kirk, who was a noted Eliot scholar, considered the hoo-hahs to be a nameless terror that rises from the moral emptiness of modern existence which the sufferer tries to submerge beneath his consciousness through sensual pleasure, especially sexual pleasure. When the hoo-hahs overtake the "Sweeney" of Kirk's novel he gets the urge to rape.
[reposted with typos fixed]
My mom was contemptuous of making a big "hooha" over anything. I don't think I ran into any "hoopla" until college.
From Wikipedia article "Recurring features in Mad (magazine)"
"The word "hoohah" was an early running gag, often exclaimed by excited characters in the comic book issues written by Harvey Kurtzman; the first story in the first issue of Mad was titled "Hoohah!".[12] Its Eastern European feel was a perfect fit for the New York Jewish style of the publication. The precise origin of "hoohah" is unknown, although it may have sprung from the Hungarian word for "wow", which is hűha."
Kamala Harris has a nice pair of Hoohas.
I think major slade, said that a lot in scent of a woman,
(eaglebeak)
"Hoo-ha" was one of Mad magazine's favorite expostulations in the '50s-'60s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2pzxctpnQU
I seem to recall at least one MASH episode in which Harry Morgan's Sherman Potter character used hoohah as a reference for a commotion.
Hooplas at one time were tall staffs which festival goers would elaborately adorn to help friends locate them in the large crowd. New Orleans' Jazz Fest was where I first encountered them. Googling the term does not appear to yield this reference, and I expect the rise of cell phones has made hooplas obsolete. Any current Jazz Fest attendees able to confirm this theory?
Which sounds best: Hooha Monologues, Hooha Harangues, Hooha Discourses, Hooha Sermons, Hooha Soliloquies.
No. That's not right. Her skirt had a slit so high I could see all the way to Cleveland. Hooha!
In Ancient Greece, they say Helen of Troy had the face to launch a thousand ships.
In some ways, Stormy Daniels is our modern day version of Helen of Troy. She has the Hoohas to launch a thousand subpoenas.
"....your belief — that the primary meaning of "hooha" is female genitalia."
You mean it's not? Really?
You have rocked my world, Althouse.
That's it, I'm saving up for a dead trees copy (if still available) of the OED.
That's what happens when one is, what is the word, unmanned by AA's erudition.
Seriously, I can't afford that kind of action at my age. The OED will be cheap at the price.
I may have confused Hooha for Wahoos.
If true, there should be 1 Hooha south of the border, not 2 Hoohas north of the border.
My bad. I blame my college education.
Separately, I read Mad Magazine regularly when I was 11-14 years old. I thought it was brilliant at the time, and I still do. My mother (God rest her soul) did not approve, but looking back on it now, it was harmless stuff, although often politically incorrect by today's standards (i.e., the "that's not funny" standard).
I do not recall any exclamations of "Hoo Ha" in the strips, but so be it. There was much to enjoy. The writers were equal opportunity satirists, you know, the funny kind.
Where is Don Martin, now that we need him more than ever?
We'll always have hoo-hoo--the scientific term.
(eaglebeak)
Here is some documentation on the Mad Mag/Alfred E. Neuman use of "Hoo-Ha!" In fact, the chapter in which this appears is titled "The Joys of Hoo-Ha!"
https://books.google.com/books?id=KNR1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT117&lpg=PT117&dq=alfred+e.+neuman+says+hoo-ha&source=bl&ots=0AFVXWTdpe&sig=ACfU3U20mxfZK3tDxJmQ9bP-W6Ab-vKRDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir3YLg3MHhAhXpnuAKHRRLCioQ6AEwHXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=alfred%20e.%20neuman%20says%20hoo-ha&f=false
It's from a book called Return of the Masked Kid by Dan Neiser
The final poetry festival of the beat poets was held around 1980 at the University of Oregon. It was called the Great Poetic Hoohah, and it featured Alan Ginsberg and Gary Synder. Moreover, it was organized by Ken Kesey.
"Knee deep in the hoo-ha"..
It's my go-to Al Pacino impression. HOO-HA!
It’s the modern US Army’s battle cry and you’re spelling it wrong — it’s Hoo-Ah!
As much as I disrespect Pacino he got it right. He must have had a good military advisor.
By the way no way that little bastard would have lasted more than a few months in a military unit. Those lizard eyes and that creepy passive aggressive pride would be unbearable in the real world, I guess they are ok in the Hollywood world where lollypop heads are best for the cinematographer, but Pacino was never a mensch, he was never NCO material, never officer material.
Where I grew up in Kentucky, Hooha can refer to both male and female genitalia. (e.g. Stop thinkin’ with your Hooha! Or, damn, my Hooha is sore from last night!)
FYI, in the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the term is used dramatically by a cute lady to shame a timid male, and clearly refers to female genitalia.
But maybe it's just an Oahu north shore colloqialism?
Similar to when your friends yell "Bwak-Bwak" at you when you're trying to chicken out of going on a double black diamond run at Squaw Valley?
It should be noted that while the Diddy Kong definition is the one at the top of the page, it is NOT the one with the most upvotes. The women's genitalia definition (in multiple forms) gets several times as many upvotes.
I’m familiar with the female genitalia definition, but I don’t think of it as the primary one. When I hear the word, I only go to that meaning if the context supports it.
Speaking of where my mind goes, one of my English professors pointed out that T.S. Eliot is an anagram for toilets. Which ever since has been the first thing I think of when someone mentions T.S. Eliot.
Thanks for the Nevil Shute shoutout
John Henry
Founder Nevil Shute Society (now Nevil shute Foundation)
Nevilshute.org
Back in pre-History, MAD used to use "Hoo-ha!" as a way of underscoring something bawdy or sexual. I believe that was a common usage of the era.
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