Alley-Oop

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:52 AM -0700 4/8/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>In my limited experience, "ups-a-daisy" (sic) is more common.  Even
>in the '50s, I'm pretty sure I heard "alley-oop" solely in old
>movies.
>
>"Alley Oop" is best known, I think, as the name of a famous caveman.
>
>JL

In some circles it's more widely known as a football and, more
recently, basketball play.  I recall it first being applied to a pass
play practiced by the San Francisco 49ers (football team), in which
the quarterback (John Brodie?  Y. A. Tittle?) would heave it high
into the end zone to R. C. Owens, who was quite tall and could reach
over the heads of the defensive backs to pluck the ball out of the
air.  That would have been in the late 50's/early 60's, I'm guessing.
Later, it became used quite frequently in basketball and still is,
again with a tall guy (there are a lot of them around in basketball)
going up for the ball near the basket and someone passing it to him
when he's at the top of his arc, so he can slam it down.  On ESPN
they even distinguish between the "alley" (the pass) and the "oop"
(the catch and slam).

larry

>
>Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
>Subject: Re: Alley-Oop
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 00:34:12 +0200, Christine Waigl wrote:
>
>>Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>
>>>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).
>>
>>I agree. I've never seen it spelled anything but "allez hop" in
>>(contemporary) French.
>>
>>(A conflation with "(allez) ouste", maybe? "Allez" can stand on its own
>>as an interjection.)
>
>Well, MWCD11 says it's a combination of French "allez" and English "-oop",
>perhaps an alteration of "up". I don't see why it couldn't have derived
>from "allez" + "houp", if those interjections were used in conjunction (as
>in Conrad's "Allez! Houp!"). But if "allez hop" was more of a fixed
>expression, then perhaps the final syllable was transformed to "oop" in
>English renderings under influence from interjections like "houp(-la)",
>"whoop", "oops-a-daisy", etc. I can see how there may have been secondary
>influence from "up" (with "oop" as a dialectal form, as in "Oop North"?),
>since the interjection was associated with lifting up things or people.
>
>Where's a philologically inclined French trapeze artist when you need one?
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>http://mail.yahoo.com