Hip hip hooray
Hip hip hooray (also hippity hip hooray; hooray may also be spelled and pronounced hoorah, hurrah, hurray etc.) is a cheer called out to express congratulation toward someone or something, in the English-speaking world and elsewhere.
By a sole speaker, it is a form of interjection. In a group, it takes the form of call and response: the cheer is initiated by one person exclaiming "Three cheers for...[someone or something]" (or, more archaically, "Three times three"[1][2][3][4]), then calling out "hip hip" (archaically, "hip hip hip") three times, each time being responded by "hooray" or "hurrah".
The cheer continues to be used to express congratulations. In Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the cheer is usually expressed after the singing of "Happy Birthday to You".[5] In Canada and the United Kingdom, the cheer has been used to greet and salute the monarch at public events.[6][7]
History
The call was recorded in England in the beginning of the 19th century in connection with making a toast.[8] Eighteenth century dictionaries list "Hip" as an attention-getting interjection, and in an example from 1790 it is repeated.[9] "Hip-hip" was added as a preparatory call before making a toast or cheer in the early 19th century, probably after 1806. By 1813, it had reached its modern form, hip-hip-hurrah.[10]
It has been suggested that the word "hip" stems from a
One theory about the origin of "hurrah" is that the Europeans picked up the Mongol exclamation "hooray" as an enthusiastic cry of bravado and mutual encouragement. See Jack Weatherford's book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.[16]
See also
References
- ^ Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Volume 9. 1834, James Fraser. Google Books. p. 410. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
- ^ Wright, John Martin Frederick (1827). Alma Mater: Or, Seven Years at the University of Cambridge. Black, Young, and Young, p. 19. Google Books.
- ^ Byron, Henry James; Davis, Jim (January 19, 1984). Plays by H. J. Byron: The Babes in the Wood, The Lancashire Lass, Our Boys, The Gaiety Gulliver. p. 42. Google Books. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
- Twain, Mark (1890 - 1910). The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories. Digireads.com Publishing, January 1, 2004. Google Books. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
- ^ Khalil, Shireen (3 June 2021). "Aussie birthday ritual shocks Americans living Down Under". News Corp Australia. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- ^ "Queen unveils plaque marking navy's 100th". www.cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- ^ "Queen calls Royal Jubilee a 'humbling experience'". www.ctvnews.ca. BellMedia. 5 June 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- JSTOR 453841.
- ^ "The Times (London)". 1790-11-27: 2.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) 'Sir Charles engag'd one day at dice / Hip! hip! come hither John, he cries;' - ^ Brown, Peter Jensen (26 May 2014). "Three Cheers, Hip-Hip-Hurrah and Tom and Jerry". Early Sports 'n Pop-Culture Blog. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
- ISBN 0-7506-8320-1, p.669
- ISBN 1-58734-094-1.
- ^ Fontaine, Michael. "On the Acronym Origin of the English Phrase Hep! Hep!".
- ISBN 9780191584312.
- ^ Katz, Jacob (1994). Die Hep-Hep-Verfolgungen des Jahres 1819. p. 29.
- ^ Murphy, Joseph W. (November 21, 2005 ). "Re: Hurray!!!! A Mongol Word?". Tech-Archive.net. Retrieved February 19, 2013.