hoo-ha as euphemism (revisited)

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:13 PM -0500 2/14/07, Kevin Birge wrote:
>I don't think its usage could be THAT widespread since just last year or
>2005, Domino's Pizza was running the ad where the store manager tries to
>motivate his crew to pizza spinning greatness by saying "Can I get a 'HOO-HA
>two times Tuesday!' people!?"
>
>Unless he actually meant he wanted a hoo-ha two times on Tuesday, which I
>think could be construed as some kind of sexual harassment and really
>wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to advertise. but I'm neither an ad exec,
>nor a lawyer.

Another hoo- variant just spotted on last night's "Grey's Anatomy":

  Dr. Meredith Grey, explaining that even though (unlike their present
patient, the married former head of the hospital, who had just been
diagnosed as being afflicted with the dread candiru, the parasitic
Amazon penis-fish that apparently crawled up his urine stream and
that I'd only ever previously encountered in Burroughs' _Naked
Lunch_, which was seen as divine retribution for his carrying on with
his beautiful secretary) she had managed to carry on herself with the
then married Dr. Derek Shepard (a.k.a. Dr. McDreamy):

"A fish didn't lodge in my hoo-hoo, but it was no easy ride"

So we have the hoo-hah, the hootee, and now the hoo-hoo.  Or is that
just the Seattle variant?  (Isogloss alert!)

LH

>
>On 2/14/07, Sam Clements <SClements at neo.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: hoo-ha as euphemism
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I can report that I remember hearing my sister-in-law, in 1963, refer to a
>>vagina as a "hootee." [accent on first syllable.  I don't know how it was
>>spelled, of course.] She would have been about 16 at the time.  She was
>>born
>>and raised in Richmond, VA. as was her mother.  And I would be sure that
>>her
>>mother taught her the word.  That was the first time I can remember
>>hearing
>>and use of "hoo-" in relation to a vagina.  I don't think I heard the "hoo
>>ha" until rather more recently, last 20 years, and since I've lived in
>>Akron, OH.
>>
>>Sam Clements
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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