Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hoya

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.65 in modern English

Syllables
hoya
IPA
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A member of the Georgetown Hoyas, the official athletics teams of Georgetown University in the United States.

noun

A current or former student of Georgetown University.

noun

Any plant of the genus Hoya

Example Sentences

Etymology

Derived from the code switched Greek and Latin phrasal chant "Hoya Saxa!" (meaning "What (great) Rocks!"), which gained popularity at the school in the late nineteenth century. Even though "Hoya Saxa!" is an example of code-switching, since the phrase includes only a Greek adjective and a Latin noun, said adjective must be viewed as modifying the noun, which noun then controls the phrase as pertains to grammatical number and gender. Saxa, the phrasal noun, is the nominative plural form of the Latin neuter noun saxum, "(a) stone/(a) rock", and so means "stones"/"rocks"". Hoya in the phrase is an English transliteration of the Greek determiner οἵα (hoîă), the neuter nominative plural form of οἷος (hoîos), which introduces exclamatory independent phrases and is translated into English as "what (great)...!" Because of the foregoing, we can discern that the phrase "Hoya Saxa!" in its entirety means "What (great) rocks!" The chant was initially used in support of the college athletic teams, assumedly meaning something along the lines of "Look how hard and tough our (athletic) fellows are!" The name "Hoyas" came into use in the 1920s as a term decontextualized from the phrasal chant and applied as an identifier of Georgetown University students and alumni, who were thenceforth collectively known as "Hoyas". Compare Hokie.

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Sports.

Inflected Forms

Hoyas (plural)

Questions

What does hoya mean?
A member of the Georgetown Hoyas, the official athletics teams of Georgetown University in the United States.
Where does hoya come from?
Derived from the code switched Greek and Latin phrasal chant "Hoya Saxa!" (meaning "What (great) Rocks!"), which gained popularity at the school in the late nineteenth century. Even though "Hoya Saxa!" is an example of code-switching, since the phrase includes only a Greek adjective and a Latin noun, said adjective must be viewed as modifying the noun, which noun then controls the phrase as pertains to grammatical number and gender. Saxa, the phrasal noun, is the nominative plural form of the Latin neuter noun saxum, "(a) stone/(a) rock", and so means "stones"/"rocks"". Hoya in the phrase is an English transliteration of the Greek determiner οἵα (hoîă), the neuter nominative plural form of οἷος (hoîos), which introduces exclamatory independent phrases and is translated into English as "what (great)...!" Because of the foregoing, we can discern that the phrase "Hoya Saxa!" in its entirety means "What (great) rocks!" The chant was initially used in support of the college athletic teams, assumedly meaning something along the lines of "Look how hard and tough our (athletic) fellows are!" The name "Hoyas" came into use in the 1920s as a term decontextualized from the phrasal chant and applied as an identifier of Georgetown University students and alumni, who were thenceforth collectively known as "Hoyas". Compare Hokie.

How to pronounce hoya

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