"huzzah" labelled Colonial speech

[Jonathan Lighter]

Evidence in the OED suggests that "Huzzah !" "Hurrah! " and "Hurray !" would all have been possible in the mid to late 18th Century.

  But one supposes that Williamsburg chose to encourage "Huzzah !" because it sounds the most archaic.

  BTW, does anybody still shout even "Hurrah !" or "Hurray !" ?  Nowadays all I hear is "Yeah !" "Yeeeee-haaaah !" and "Yaaaay !"  Even "Yahoo ! " and "Whoopeee !" have come to sound like literary fakes.

  JL

Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Amy West
Subject: "huzzah" labelled Colonial speech
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've quickly checked WordOrigins, but I haven't checked the ADS-L archives....

I've spotted this tidbit in my morning paper in an article (AP) on
the new Revolutionary City gimmick at Colonial Williamsburg:

"Now they're [costumed workers] performing a play, improvising a bit
as they walk among the audience, asking observers whether they want
to break free from England and encouraging people to shout 'Huzzah,'
a Colonial cheer."

Has this in fact been found to be the case concerning "Huzzah"? The
only place I've encountered it is at Ren Faires as part of the
(fakey) Elizabethan-speak. I see that C11 dates it to 1573. But is it
still used in the late 1770s?

This development is really worrisome (to me) because in the museum
field, we often look to Colonial Williamsburg as a leader in
conservation of artifacts and historical interpretation.

---Amy West

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC for low, low rates.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org