Haven't expanded on my "dictionary" of made up, adopted and/or modified words in a long time but I find that I've been using the word "hooha" a lot lately and someone commented on what a great word it was and I realized, yes, it IS a pretty marvelous word ... so thought I ought to spread the love.
Once I decided to do a dictionary entry on "hooha," I started thinking of other things to add ...
... I remembered that there's a new way I'm using an old word that's fun.
... and I thought of something that would be removed from use if I had control over what people said/got folded into acceptable ways to speak ... and so I'll introduce Deb's Preference Police, Dictionary Division.
And so ... to the new additions:
Hooha - pronounced pretty much as it looks. hoo (who)-ha.
Hooha is a generous and multi-functional word. There are many great ways to use it, but some of my favorites are:
Hooha as noun, describing an event. It could be a big shin dig ( ... don't you hate it when the description may also need defining?) ... a kid's birthday party, a holiday party, or a formal affair like a wedding or anniversary party. It could be a first date, a road trip, or it could also be something less "event-ish" like a picnic with the family or dinner with a friend.
It could be something you want to go to or not.
And this brings us to something really cool about "hooha" ... it takes on a whole different flavor depending on how you use it. With an air of delight: "I'm going with Joe to a music hooha on Friday," one could assume that you were excited about the upcoming outing. (or about joe ...) If you used the word with a little bit of annoyance in your voice: "Deb just produced a big hooha fundraiser for her job," could mean that Deb wasn't all that emotionally attached to said hooha. Could also mean that she was exhausted ... perhaps she just pulled a rabbit out of a hat with the fundraising hooha, and that it involved tons of details (remember, the letter C in the last post, friends ...), and were it not for her wonderful strong-in-the-ways-of-the-left-brain'ed associate, and a few good friends who touch base via email regularly, she would have melted down ... and now, nearly a week later, she's still recovering.
(isn't it fun to talk about yourself in the third person? makes you seem so very important ... like you're a big hooha.)
See, another use: hooha as description. If you think you're a big hooha, you think you're really important. (sometimes you are. sometimes you're not.)
Hooha can also be substituted for many words you can't remember: for example: describing an outfit. (probably better if you imagine joan rivers saying it on a red carpet somewhere: "who designed that fabulous hooha you're wearing?") ... or you could be talking about the newest gadget ... cause, let's face it, how many names of electronic gadgets can one remember? Blackberry, Treo, Razer (or is it razor?), blahblahblah. Better "hooha" ... you'll never be wrong, and surely folks will know what you're talking about: "Email me from the road with your hooha."
(although somehow that sounds remotely sexual and i'm not sure i'd want to take hooha in a sexual direction ...) (but then ...)
Once you start using hooha in place of other words, you'll find it very useful and you'll wonder how you did without it. Just beware, like all cool words, a little hooha goes a long way. You wouldn't want to overuse it and make it boring and passe.
Origins: I don't remember where hooha came from. Did I make it up? Did I hear someone use it and just sort of osmosize it? (sometimes i do that; other times i'll hear a word or a phrase and like it so much, i'll consciously adopt it.) Whatever it is, it is a welcome addition to the Deb Dictionary.
As is the new favorite: Truth.
Truth. The word is not unique. We all know what "truth" means. (well, maybe not all of us - see graphic ...) But used on its own as a sentence, it is the most brilliant alternative-affirmative I've found in a long time. If someone says: "W is a putz." The reply is simply: "Truth."
It really requires no further discussion, does it? The coolness of this use of "truth" just IS.
Truth.
Origins: I know where this usage came from; my friend Wes* has been using "truth" as his defacto affirmative for a while. I liked it right from the start, and claimed it immediately. (semi-related to the aforementioned truth, check out stephen colbert's truthiness here and here ...)
As for the Deb's Preference Police, Dictionary Division ... #1 on the hit-list parade of offenders is "Where are you AT?"
Where are you AT? I believe this horrific sentence has its roots in the 60's - a decade that I love - but by letting the "That's where it's at ..." bit of lingo go, we suddenly got used to using this preposition at the end of a sentence and it's all gone downhill from there. I know it's silly to care. And I know that at times it's OK to use a preposition at the end of a sentence, but in this case, if I ruled the world, 'Where are you AT' would be jettisoned from acceptability. Isn't "Where are you?" enough?
My friends laugh about this, but to me, this usage is like fingers on a chalkboard.
You'd think I have way too much time on my hands to be thinking of such things, but after the fundraising hooha and my stepsons graduation hooha in DC this past weekend (more on that in another post perhaps), I'm really rather wiped. Truth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
*In an effort to maintain some anonymity for my friends/family, I've decided to try to give them nicknames on the blog. (unless, of course, they are fellow bloggers, or 'out' on the internet, then all bets are off ...)
