hip hip hooray

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Recorded as far back as 1803. The word hip was in use then as a meaningless syllable to get someone's attention. Hooray (or hurrah) goes back to 1686, and also had no specific meaning, used instead to get a person's attention.

Interjection

hip hip hooray

An exclamation of congratulations especially in response to a call for 'Three cheers for' the person.

Usage notes

A folk etymology for this interjection suggests it comes from an anti-Semitic German interjection (hep hep), but that is much too recent.

Translations

an exclamation of congratulations

Chinese:
Mandarin: 万岁！万岁！万万岁！
Czech: hip, hip, hurá
Dutch: hieperdepiep hoera, hiep hiep hoera
French: hip hip hip hourra
German: hipp, hipp, hurra

Italian: hip hip hip urrà, hip hip hip hurrà
Norwegian: hipp hipp hurra
Portuguese: hip hip hurra
Russian: гип-ги́п ура́ (gip-gíp urá), гип-ги́п-ура́ (ru) (gip-gíp-urá)
Spanish: hip hip hurra
Swedish: hipp hipp hurra

References

October 12, 2015. WordOrigins.org Dave Wilton.

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.