Who f irst made a hullabaloo?

QUESTION Is the word ‘hullabaloo’ an old hunting cry?

IN 1898, scottish lexicographer and philologist James A. H. Murray, editor of the first Oxford English Dictionary, asked for help locating a quotation from Tobias smollett, allegedly the f i rst example of ‘hullabaloo’ in print.

His appeal ended with the acerbic remark: ‘It is one of the numerous words of which the use has been justified by saying that they are as dignified as the thing they stand for.’

The quotation was found in smollett’s Adventures Of sir Launcelot Greaves (1762): ‘Would there was a blister on this plaguy tongue of mine for making such a hollo-ballo.’ smollett uses the word in i ts current context, as a ‘commotion, fuss or tumult’.

A popular opinion is that it was at first a rhyming cry, such as halloo- baloo, but there i s no evidence for this.

Murray’s correspondents put forward alternative origins. some suggested the Hebrew word ‘hallelujah’ was its etymon, others cited the once common exclamation of surprise, ‘hubbubboo’ — indistinguishable from hubbub, traced back to a Celtic war cry.

The French word, hurluberlu, meaning scatter-brained, appears t o have been concocted by Francois Rabelais in the 16th century. There’s also ‘hurly-burly’, made famous by the three witches in shakespeare’s Macbeth: ‘When the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won . . .’

It is thought to be a contracted form of ‘ hurling’ and ‘ burling’ — hurling is an even older term for a commotion, and burling is no more than a rhyming variation.

Other possible origins are a scottish lullaby known as a ‘baloo’, the Turkish word kalabalik (with the same meaning as hullabaloo), and French hunting cry: ‘ Bas le loup!’ Meaning: ‘ Bring down the wolf!’ Murray decided hullabaloo is the exclamation hullo-, with -loo echoing the first element and -baa meaningless ‘infix’.

This simple etymology is perhaps the best we have.

Geoff Thomas, Cambridge.

QUESTION Having watched the brilliant Oasish, I wondered what are the best tribute band names out there?

FURTHER to earlier answers, there’s a Liverpool-based tribute band called Crowded scouse.

There’s also The Cure tribute Liqueur, but I think they missed a trick. They could have called themselves Prevention and claimed to be better than The Cure.