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Origin and history of whoop

whoop(v.)

mid-14c., houpen, whopen, "shout with a loud, excited voice," partly imitative, partly from Old French huper, houper "to cry out, shout," also imitative. It is attested as an interjection from at least mid-15c. The spelling with wh- is from mid-15c. The noun, "loud call, hooting cry," is Middle English houp.

Phrase whoop it up "create a disturbance" is recorded from 1881.

Whooping cough (1739), the acute, contagious childhood disease so called for its peculiar cough, is now the prevalent spelling of hooping cough; whooping crane, in reference to a large, white North American bird so called for its cry, is recorded from 1791.

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to whoop

hoopla

also hoop-la, 1877, hoop la, American English, earlier houp-la, exclamation accompanying quick movement (1870), of unknown origin, perhaps borrowed from French houp-là "upsy-daisy," also a cry to dogs, horses, etc. (see whoop).

whoopee(n.)

1845, "noisy, unrestrained revelry," extended form of whoop, originally American English. The popular song "Makin' Whoopee" is from 1928. The novelty whoopee cushion is from 1931.

wh-

consonant cluster, a respelling of Old English hw-, Northumbrian hu- attested from 11c., widespread in some places by 14c., but not the common form overall until after c. 1400. The cluster represents PIE *kw-; in German reduced to simple w-, in Scandinavian as hv-, kv-, or v-.

It also was added unetymologically to some borrowed words (whisk, whiskey) and some native words formerly spelled with simple w- or h- (whole, whore). In the 15c. flowering of its use it also threatened to change the spelling of hot, home and many more.

Proper pronunciation in modern educated English speech has been much in dispute. In Middle English also vh-, qv-, qwh-, hu-; in northern English 16c.-18c., sometimes altered to quh- (see Q) which perhaps indicated a guttural enunciation, as also perhaps in earlier Northumbrian use of ch- in the pronouns.

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    Trends of whoop

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    hack
    "to cut roughly, cut with chopping blows," c. 1200, from verb found in stem of Old English tohaccian "hack to pieces," from West Germanic *hakkon (source also of Old Frisian hackia "to chop or hack," Dutch hakken, Old High German hacchon, German hacken), from PIE root *keg- "hook
    war
    Warpath (1775) originally is in reference to North American Indians, as are war-whoop (1761), war-paint (1826), and war-dance...
    cry
    mid-13c., "yell (something) out, utter" (transitive); c. 1300, "beg, implore; speak earnestly and loudly; advertise by calling out," from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *critare, from Latin quiritare "to wail, shriek" (source of Italian gridare, Old Spanish cridar, Spanish a
    shout
    c. 1300, shouten, schowten "to call or cry out loudly," a word of unknown origin; perhaps from the root of shoot (v.) on the notion of "throw the voice out loudly," or related to Old Norse skuta "a taunt" (compare scout (v.2)); both of which are reconstructed to be from PIE root
    south
    Old English suþ "southward, to or toward the south, southern, in the south," from Proto-Germanic *sunthaz, perhaps literally "sun-side" (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian suth "southward, in the south," Middle Dutch suut, Dutch zuid, German Süden), and related to base of *sun
    cough
    "a violent, noisy effort to expel air from the lungs," early 14c., coughen, probably in Old English but not recorded, from Proto-Germanic *kokh- (source also of Middle Dutch kochen, Middle High German kuchen), with the rough "kh" of German or of Scottish loch. Onomatopoeic. Relat
    yell
    Old English giellan (West Saxon), gellan (Mercian) "to yell, sound, shout," class III strong verb (past tense geal, past participle gollen), from Proto-Germanic *gel- (source also of Old Norse gjalla "to resound," Middle Dutch ghellen, Dutch gillen, Old High German gellan, German
    call
    mid-13c., "cry out; call for, summon, invoke; ask for, demand, order; give a name to, apply by way of designation," from Old Norse kalla "cry loudly, summon in a loud voice; name, call by name," from Proto-Germanic *kall- (source also of Middle Dutch kallen "speak, say, tell," Du
    scream
    late Old English, scræmen, scremen, "utter a piercing cry, cry out with a shrill voice," a word of uncertain origin, similar to words in Scandinavian, Dutch, German, and Flemish (such as Old Norse skræma "to terrify, scare away," skramsa "to scream;" Swedish scrana "to scream," M
    crane
    large grallatorial bird with very long legs, beak, and neck, Old English cran, common Germanic (cognates: Old Saxon krano, Old High German krano, German Kranich, and, with unexplained change of consonant, Old Norse trani, Danish trane), from PIE *gere-no-, suffixed form of root *

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