Hooah !

[Barnhart]

How does this compare with "booyah"?

David

barnhart at highlands.com

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Tuesday, August 2,
2005 at 9:55 AM  wrote:


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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Hooah !
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>An acroetymythonym ?  Things have gotten so dumb, who can tell anymore?
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_slang#A  :
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>            Hooah...a spirited cry, which can mean nearly anything
>positive. Short for   "Heard,    Understood and Acknowledged."  See also,
>HUA.  HUA  Head up Ass
>
>For the uninitiated, "Hooah ! " has been the U.S. Army's preferred way of
>saying, "Yes indeed," "Wow," "Right on," "O.K.," etc. for about fifteen
>years.  It can even be a question :
>
>"Let's get some beers. Hooah ? "  "Hooah ! "
>
>Apparently the only grammatical answer to "Hooah ? " is "Hooah ! "
>
>Yowzah.
>
>Stress is always on the first syllable, and it often helps to make the
>word sound as much like a caveman grunt as possible. BTW, Marines do not
>and *must* not say "Hooah ! " They must instead say "Oorah ! " though I'm
>not sure that it's used as a question yet.
>
>JL
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