hoo

• IPA^(key): /huː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophone: who

From Middle English hoo, shoo (“she”) from Old English hēo (“she”). More at she.

hoo (third-person singular, feminine, nominative case, accusative and possessive her, possessive hers, reflexive herself)

1. (South Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire) she
   • 1854, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, North and South, Chapter VIII:

     'Aye, aye,' said the father, impatiently, 'hoo'll come. Hoo's a bit set up now, because hoo thinks I might ha' spoken more civilly; but hoo'll think better on it, and come. I can read her proud bonny face like a book.

2. (West Midlands and South West England) he, also a gender-neutral third person pronoun

• hoo-justice
• hoo'll
• hoose
• hoost
• hoor

From Middle English hoo, ho. More at ho.

hoo

1. (obsolete) hurrah; an exclamation of triumphant joy
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     With, hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life

2. (Geordie) Used to attract the attention of others.

   "Hoo yee!"

3. An exclamation of pain.
   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 98:

     Old Peter, summoned to assist at getting Mrs Dibble upstairs, made no pretence of commiseration for the sufferer. "Gone and done it again, have you?" he said with satisfaction. "About the best thing you could have done, the way it'll keep you out of the shop a bit longer," which so far revived Mrs Dibble that she exclaimed fiercely, "I don't want none of your cheek, Peter Bodfish and not a minute you'd stay in my shop if - Hoo! Ow! Me leg - "

hoo (plural hoos)

1. An uttering of the cry 'hoo'.
   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 98:

     Improvising a stretcher from a cupboard door, they levered Mrs Dibble on to it and got her upstairs to "Hoos!" and "Ows!" of anguish, and laid her on the bed, where Rita administered another stiff dose of gin.

• hoo-ee

From Middle English howe, hu (“how”), from Old English hū (“how”). More at how.

hoo (not comparable)

1. (Northumbria, Geordie) how

• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “hoo”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05.

From Middle English hough, hogh, ho, from Old English hōh. Doublet of hough.

hoo

1. (obsolete outside placenames) A strip of land; a peninsula; a spur or ridge.

• OOH, oho, ooh

hoo

1. porcupine

hoo

1. genitive singular of hoog

• IPA^(key): /ˈhoː/,
• Rhymes: -oː
• Syllabification^(key): hoo
• Hyphenation^(key): hoo

Possibly from Swedish hå.

hoo (dated)

1. eek (displaying shock and surprise)

From Swedish hå, ultimately from Latin hā with raising of /aː/ to /oː/.

hoo

1. aitch (The name of the Latin-script letter H/h)

• Speakers often use the expression h-kirjain (“letter h”) instead of inflecting this word, especially in the plural.

• h-kirjain

• hoomoilasena

• oho

hoo

1. alternative form of who (“who”, nominative)

hoo

1. alternative form of hough (“hough, hock”)

• IPA^(key): /ɦoo/

hoo

1. to come from

   Kidyaxe a hoo nǁaa?

   where do you come from?

   Sa hoo ng ǀxʼe.

   We come from Upington. (lit. We come from liver)

2. to get
3. to find

   kua si hoo ku ainki ng gǃari

   He will find his father in Upington

4. to meet

   ǂoo ke si hoo ǃʼoakerasi.

   The man must meet the girl.

• Shah, S. & Brenzinger, M. (2016). Ouma Geelmeid ke kx’u ǁxaǁxa Nǀuu. Cape Town: CALDi, University of Cape Town.
• Sands, Bonny & Jones, Kerry & Esau, Katrina & Collins, Chris & Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena & Job, Sylvanus & Miller, Amanda & Steyn, Betta & Zaanen, Menno & Namaseb, Levi & Berg, Dietloff & Mantzel, Dotty & Damarah, Willem & Snyman, Claudia & Wyk, David & Brugman, Johanna & Exter, Mats & Vaalbooi, Antjie & Westhuizen, Mietjie. (2022). Nǀuuki Namagowab Afrikaans English ǂXoakiǂxanisi/Mîdi di ǂKhanis/Woordeboek/Dictionary.
• Güldemann, Tom and Ernszt, Martina and Siegmund, Sven and Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena. 2010.0. A Text documentation of Nǀuu.
• Collins, Chris, 'The Linker in the Khoisan Languages', in Jason Kandybowicz, and Harold Torrence (eds), Africa's Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches (New York, 2017; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Aug. 2017), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190256340.003.0011, accessed 5 Feb. 2025.

See also foo.

• IPA^(key): /huː/

hoo (not comparable)

1. how
2. why

• “hoo, adv.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.