• IPA^(key): /huː/

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-uː
• Homophone:who

FromMiddle Englishhoo,shoo(“she”) fromOld Englishhēo(“she”). More atshe.

hoo (third-person singular, feminine, nominative case,accusative and possessiveher,possessivehers,reflexiveherself)

1. (South Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire)she
   • 1854,Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell,North and South,Chapter VIII:

     'Aye, aye,' said the father, impatiently, 'hoo'll come.Hoo's a bit set up now, becausehoo thinks I might ha' spoken more civilly; buthoo'll think better on it, and come. I can read her proud bonny face like a book.

2. (West Midlands and South West England)he,also a gender-neutral third person pronoun

• hoo-justice
• hoo'll
• hoose
• hoost
• hoor

FromMiddle Englishhoo,ho. More atho.

hoo

1. (obsolete)hurrah; anexclamation oftriumphantjoy
   • c.1608–1609 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,(please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone!Hoo! hoo!

   • c.1599–1602 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,(please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     With,hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life

2. (Geordie) Used to attract theattention of others.

   "Hoo yee!"

3. An exclamation ofpain.
   • 1950,Norman Lindsay,Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page98:

     Old Peter, summoned to assist at getting Mrs Dibble upstairs, made no pretence of commiseration for the sufferer. "Gone and done it again, have you?" he said with satisfaction. "About the best thing you could have done, the way it'll keep you out of the shop a bit longer," which so far revived Mrs Dibble that she exclaimed fiercely, "I don't want none of your cheek, Peter Bodfish and not a minute you'd stay in my shop if -Hoo! Ow! Me leg - "

hoo (pluralhoos)

1. An uttering of the cry 'hoo'.
   • 1950,Norman Lindsay,Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page98:

     Improvising a stretcher from a cupboard door, they levered Mrs Dibble on to it and got her upstairs to "Hoos!" and "Ows!" of anguish, and laid her on the bed, where Rita administered another stiff dose of gin.

• hoo-ee

FromMiddle Englishhowe,hu(“how”), fromOld Englishhū(“how”). More athow.

hoo (notcomparable)

1. (Northumbria, Geordie)how

• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[1]
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “hoo”, inNewcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[2], archived fromthe original on2024-09-05.

FromMiddle Englishhough,hogh,ho, fromOld Englishhōh.Doublet ofhough.

hoo

1. (obsolete outside placenames) A strip of land; a peninsula; a spur or ridge.

• OOH,oho,ooh

hoo

1. porcupine

hoo

1. genitivesingular ofhoog

• IPA^(key): /ˈhoː/,[ˈho̞ː]
• Rhymes:-oː
• Hyphenation^(key):hoo

Possibly fromSwedishhå.

hoo(dated)

1. eek(displaying shock and surprise)

FromSwedishhå, ultimately fromLatinhā with raising of/aː/ to/oː/.

hoo

1. aitch (The name of theLatin-script letterH/h)

• Speakers often use the expressionh-kirjain(“letter h”) instead of inflecting this word, especially in the plural.

• h-kirjain

• hoomoilasena

• oho

hoo

1. Alternative form ofwho(“who”,nominative)

hoo

1. Alternative form ofhough(“hough, hock”)

• IPA^(key): /ɦoo/

hoo

1. tocomefrom

   Kidyaxe ahoo nǁaa?

   where do youcome from?

   Sahoo ng ǀxʼe.

   Wecome from Upington. (lit. We come from liver)

2. toget
3. tofind

   kua sihoo ku ainki ng gǃari

   He willfind his father in Upington

4. tomeet

   ǂoo ke sihoo ǃʼoakerasi.

   The man mustmeet the girl.

• Shah, S. & Brenzinger, M. (2016).Ouma Geelmeid ke kx’u ǁxaǁxa Nǀuu. Cape Town: CALDi, University of Cape Town.
• Sands, Bonny & Jones, Kerry & Esau, Katrina & Collins, Chris & Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena & Job, Sylvanus & Miller, Amanda & Steyn, Betta & Zaanen, Menno & Namaseb, Levi & Berg, Dietloff & Mantzel, Dotty & Damarah, Willem & Snyman, Claudia & Wyk, David & Brugman, Johanna & Exter, Mats & Vaalbooi, Antjie & Westhuizen, Mietjie. (2022). Nǀuuki Namagowab Afrikaans English ǂXoakiǂxanisi/Mîdi di ǂKhanis/Woordeboek/Dictionary.
• Güldemann, Tom and Ernszt, Martina and Siegmund, Sven and Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena. 2010.0. A Text documentation of Nǀuu.
• Collins, Chris, 'The Linker in the Khoisan Languages', in Jason Kandybowicz, and Harold Torrence (eds), Africa's Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches (New York, 2017; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Aug. 2017),https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190256340.003.0011, accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

See alsofoo.

• IPA^(key): /huː/

hoo (notcomparable)

1. how
2. why

• “hoo,adv.”, inThe Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh:Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present,→OCLC.

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• Rhymes:English/uː
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