hooley
/ˈhuli/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.15 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A noisy celebration or party; also, an evening of traditional music and dance.
name
A small village in Reigate and Banstead borough, Surrey, England, just outside Greater London (OS grid ref TQ2856).
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "At a family gathering, a wake or a Christmas hooley, other children would step forward to sing a rhyme or dance a hornpipe."
- "The celebratory ceilidh at the Culag Hotel in Lochinver is still talked about. 'Oh, it was a fine evening,' one discreet woman said to me. 'A right damn wild hoolie!' a well-oiled friend enthused."
- "Indeed, our Recording Date was only yesterday and, thanks to a myriad of ongoing so-called technical 'snafus' (more media lingo – you'll get used to it!), we didn't leave the studio (get me, eh?!) until one in the morning, after which our presenters, Jiz and Liz, were in a right fouler, so we all piled back to Jane's gaff for champagne on tap and a wild sort of hoolie that had cocaine and everything, […]"
- "She had always loved what she called a hooley, a gathering of family and friends, and her dying was to be her last, greatest hooley."
- "It’s blowing a hooley out there."
- "The wind blew so hard during the service itself that it seemed as though the whole of Oban bay was trying to get into the cathedral. Either that or it was the Holy Spirit blowing up a hooley in celebration."
Etymology
The etymology of sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown. Sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following: * Borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse ýlun (“howling, wailing”), from ýla (“to howl”) (ultimately onomatopoeic) + -un (suffix forming nouns). * From sense 1.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hoolan, -, ýlun
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhuli/
- British English: /ˈhuːli/