Hootenanny

[Damien Hall]

Another sense, that no-one's mentioned so far, is known in the UK from the New
Year TV party "Jools' Annual Hootenanny".  Jools Holland is a jazz pianist, a
raconteur and definitely someone to be seen with, and he hosts this annual
broadcast musical gathering from about 11am until 1am every 31 December - 1
January;  fashionable people are invited and interviewed by him, and play /
sing their music if they are musicians.

Before this ADS-L thread I had never come across the word except in Jools'
context, and so assumed that it must mean something noisy / raucous / joyful
(onomatopoeia from 'hoot' and from the number of syllables and different vowels
in the word, I suppose).  But if there are more Google hits for
'thingumajig'-like meanings, perhaps Jools calls it that because it doesn't fit
comfortably into any other definition, so he doesn't really know *what* to call
it?

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania