Hooah !

[Jonathan Lighter]

So "booyah" seems originally to have been onomatopoeic for a gun blast ?

I prefer "blammo !" (not in OED).

JL

"Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
Subject: Re: Hooah !
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Airborne Rangers (Power Series) by Alan Landau
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Motorbooks International (August 1, 1992)
p. 7

"Today's Rangers would say that Private Reed was "hooah" -- he had the
Ranger spirit, a combination of confidence, competence, and enthusiasm."


> "Booyah" is also part of the caveman-grunt family. Earliest
> recovered cite seems to be from 1995. Civilians prefer this
> one, especially while watching, playing, or preparing to
> play football.
>

Do or Die by Leon Bing
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 20, 1992) p. 124 [there was a hardback
edition in 1991]
" "Now -- anyone puts on any color but white" -- he hoists the imaginary
shotgun, squints down the barrel -- "Booyah! You dead." "

I imagine that ESPN helped popularize this one -- it's one of their
catch phrases/words.

Pam Grier, in the 1997 film "Jackie Brown", used the term but pronounced
it "Boo-yay".

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