Hooroo

Australian Geographic reader Robert Warren has emailed to ask about “the origin of the saying hooroo as a goodbye or see-you-later in Australian slang”. He says he thought it could be “African in origin”.Well, there is quite a story behind this. It seems to have begun as a sailor’s term – huzza. One 1740 mention says it was “derived from the shouts seamen make when friends come aboard or go off ”. Over time this changed to hurrah and hooray. Possibly, the experts say, the change was influenced by a battle-cry of Prussian soldiers in the War of Liberation (1812–13).Then Aussie verbal inventiveness changed it again from hooray to hooroo – first documented in The Bulletin in 1906. Do you have a question about Aussie words? Email me at kel.richards.@2ch.com.au