From: Harald Hammarstrom
Message: 29190
Date: 2004-01-07
On Sat, 3 Jan 2004, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> At 9:36:27 AM on Saturday, January 3, 2004, Harald
> Hammarstrom wrote:
>
> > Hi!
> > I hear an urban legend that 'hooray', according to English
> > etym. dictionaries from German 'hurra',
>
> That's the etymology given by Merriam-Webster (on-line), but
> the American Heritage Dictionary makes <hooray> a variant of
> <hurrah>, itself a variant of <huzzah>. This last is said
> to be perhaps a variant of ME <hisse> 'heave!', which is
> possibly from MDu <hissen> 'to haul'.
>
> > is from an Aramaic or Hebrew exclamation meaning
> > 'kill/slughter' or the like and refers to some event
> > involving John the Baptist. I don't have access to a
> > German (or Swedish hononym which presumably has the same
> > source) that contains the entry and I can't verify is in
> > an Aramaic or Hebrew dictionary. Anyone know the status?
> > thanks, Harald
>
> SAOB on-line says:
>
> ETYMOLOGI: [jfr d. hurra, holl. hoera, eng. o. t. hurruh;
> trol. etymologiskt samhörigt med HURRA, v.1 Ordet synes
> hava inkommit i sv. från engelskt sjömansspråk ss. jubel-
> o. hyllningsrop; dess senare militära anv. torde bero på
> invärkan (under Napoleonskrigen) av det ryska stridsropet
> urá, som sannol. är av turkotatariskt urspr.
>
> For the verb mentioned above:
>
> ETYMOLOGI: [jfr sv. dial. hurra, snurra, vina, d. hurre,
> snurra, surra, nor. hurra, virvla, dundra, shetl. hurr,
> snurra, virvla, surra, spinna (om katt), eng. (dial.)
> hurr, surra, brumma, morra (om hund), mht. o. t. hurren,
> vara i hastig rörelse; urspr. ljudhärmande;
>
> Brian
>
>
>
>
>
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