"Huzzah"--reenactorism?

[Pelikan]

A pet peeve of mine is the yelling of "huzzah" by reenactors in many time periods. The word turns up in primary sources in the context of "They gave a(n) huzzah" but I haven't seen references to "They yelled 'huzzah.'"

It would seem to be the equivalent of someone calling for three cheers and everyone yelling "Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!"

The "z" sound seems an unnatural addition to an otherwise instinctive yell or interjection, more of an "old-timey" affectation than a genuine cheer.

I recall a Dom Dal Bello article ("Three Cheers and a Tiger"?) some years ago arguing against the usage--has any further research been done on the accurate usage?

Cheers, (pun intended)

Steve Pelikan
WA state

[Pennvolunteer]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

I just read an article on this, and I thought it was here on AC. I did the search function however, and it didn't come up. So now I'm going through my print journals. I am going to continue to look, but the basic point of the article was that it was used from the Revolution forward, came from the British Army, and actually was pronounced "Huzz-ay" until just before the CW when it was more commonly pronounced "Huz-ah". This guy in the article had the whole dictionary evolution through the first half of the 19th century. Now I'm going nuts trying to find the article again! I am going to continue to try find it and post the reference!!

[Pennvolunteer]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

I found the article, it is in the Company of Military Historians journal "Military Collector and Historian", winter 2012, page 279, "Huzzah or Huzzay? What is the Right Way to Properly Say the Most Popular Cheer of Our Forefathers' Day" by Norman Fuss. The article says the last Websters Dictionary entry is 1860 and says "Huzza - A shout of joy" and is deriviative of Hurrah.

[Pvt. Shattuck]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

So the men "gave a huzzah", but actually they said "hoo-ray", because huzzah is just an old fashioned way of referring to "hoo-ray?"
And that makes sense to you?

[Pelikan]

"Huzzah"--reenactorism?

No less sense than any number of the oddities of the English language, over its long and tumultuous history.

I asked because that's what we do--ask the questions, research, review the documentation, learn.

[Pelikan]

"Huzzah"--reenactorism?

Found a post on another forum re: huzzah. I'll have to run down the citations:

From A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, appearing in an August, 1899 publication:

In the same column "Hurrah" catches the eye. It is a later substitute for "huzza." We are told that "hurrah" was the battle-cry of the Prussian soldiers in the War of Liberation (1812-13), from which time it because a cry of exultation, though in practice "hooray" is the word that is shouted. Yet "hurrah" is found in Addison's "Drummer" (1716) as "whurra!" and in "She Stoops to Conquer," someone shouts "Hurrea, hurrea, bravo!" Earlier than this, "hurrah" was used to denote a cry of joy, but the actual exclamation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was "Huzza!" Thus, in Farquhar's "Recruiting Officer": "Huzza then! huzza for the queen and the honour of Shropshire." "Huzza!" is thought to have been originally a seaman's word. In a London Gazette of 1679 we may read: "At his passing over the Bridge the Castle saluted him with . . . three Hussaws, Seamen like," and various early writers connect the word with the sea. Dr. Murray suggests a connexion with "heisau!" "hissa!" which were hauling or hoisiting cries. One is only surprised that the sibilant in "Huzza" was tolerated so long. In a short-lived allusive sense "huzza" stood for a riotous young fellow and a gallant. Thus Wycherley's Dancing Master says: "We are for the brisk huzzas of seventeen or eighteen." And the party politics of Defoe's time crystallised one of its phases in "huzza-men," men paid to shout "huzza." An entry in a Flying Post of 1715 says: "For scores of huzza-men 40 pounds."

Further, the 1876 A dictionary of English synonymes and synonymous or parallel expressions published in Boston lists "huzza" as an interjection, noun, and verb.

Charles Richardson's A new dictionary of the English language from 1839 London says: "Huzza is the word shouted; to huzza is to shout the word huzza. Hurrah, (hoo-ra) is in similar usage."

Finally, an 1857 New York-published Digest of English grammar has "huzza !" and "hurrah !" side-by-side on its List of Interjections.

[Pvt. Shattuck]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

No less sense than any number of the oddities of the English language, over its long and tumultuous history.

I asked because that's what we do--ask the questions, research, review the documentation, learn.

Of course, but you compared "huzzah" to "cheer" when "huzzah" is obviously onomotopietic, that is, the word sounds like the sound it is describing, while "cheer" is not. Because "huzzah" sounds unnatural to a modern ear that is only used to "hoo-ray" does not in any way suggest that "huzzah" is a re-enactorism. To suggest that "huzzah" which is mentioned in many period references ,is inauthentic because it sounds funny to you is hardly a valid reason to question it's use. If you think about it, hoo-ray sounds pretty funny-it is certainly a learned and not natural expression. Can you imagine Kalahari bushmen shouting "hoo-ray" when they give a cheer in their own language? What about the Rebel yell-how "natural" is that?

[Michael Comer]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

Somewhere, and of course I can't remember where it was, someone wrote a comparison of the two cries; rebel yell and the Federal hurrah. It was descriptive of how the two went and, if I remember correctly, it said something along the lines that the Federal yell started with a deep sounding hoo and ended in a higher pitched rah. So more like hurrah than hooray. I am pretty sure it said nothing about a 'zah' sound. I'll have to look and see if I can find that.

[Hank Trent]

Re: "Huzzah"--reenactorism?

Because "huzzah" sounds unnatural to a modern ear that is only used to "hoo-ray" does not in any way suggest that "huzzah" is a re-enactorism. To suggest that "huzzah" which is mentioned in many period references ,is inauthentic because it sounds funny to you is hardly a valid reason to question it's use.

No, I think reenactors have abandoned its use because of sources like the 1899 one quoted above:

We are told that "hurrah" was the battle-cry of the Prussian soldiers in the War of Liberation (1812-13), from which time it because a cry of exultation, though in practice "hooray" is the word that is shouted.

Or this, from Fact, Fancy and Fable by Henry Frederic Reddall, 1892:

Hurrah, Huzzah. This is probably the oldest and most common of exclamations. It has been observed that "Hurrah!" is one of those interjections in which sound so echoes sense, that men seem to have adopted it almost instinctively. [The author cites cheers from around the world, all with an "r" sound: Ur-re-re!, Ar-re, ar-re!, Arre!, Hare, hare!, Harhaut! Hurrish!] The word is very often, and was formerly invariable, spelled "Huzza!" and its pronounciation was "Hurray!" The following couplet shows that in Pope's time it was pronounced in this way:
One Self-approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.

The couplet doesn't address the z/r problem, but it does show the "ay" sound at the end.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com