Alley-Oop

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 17:15:18 -0400, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>On Apr 7, 2005 4:44 AM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 04:29:39 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
>> <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>>
>> >I found "allez-oop" back to 1923 in a circus context.
>> [...]
>> >-----
>> >1923 _Chronicle Telegram_ (Elyria, Ohio) 1 Feb. 11/2 Allez-oop! Hoop-la!
>> >Popcorn, peanuts and pink lemonade!!! Everybody seems to be ready for
>> >the big circus except the public.
>> >-----
>>
>> There are no doubt many earlier variations on this.  Joseph Conrad's
>> short story "The Idiots" (written 1896, published in _Tales of Unrest_
>> 1898) has "Allez! Houp!"
>>
>> -----
>> http://www.classicbookshelf.com/library/joseph_conrad/tales_of_unrest/6/
>> "Hey! Come out!" shouted Jean-Pierre, loudly.
>> The nightingales ceased to sing.
>> "Nobody?" went on Jean-Pierre. "Nobody there. A swindle of the crows.
>> That's what this is. Nobody anywhere. I despise it. Allez! Houp!"
>> -----
>
>I've wondered for at least a half-century how the "oop" was spelled in
>French. Good on you, Ben, for discovering it!

Cf. the interjection "houp-là", the etymon for "hoopla".

Actually, Googling suggests that "allez hop" is a more common spelling in
French than "...houp" ("allez hop" is also the form borrowed into German
and Dutch).


--Ben Zimmer