ballyhoo
pronunciation
How to pronounce ballyhoo in British English:
UK [ˌbæliˈhuː]
How to pronounce ballyhoo in American English:
US [ ˈbælihuː]
-
- Noun:
- blatant or sensational promotion
-
- Verb:
- advertize noisily or blatantly
Word Origin
- ballyhoo
- ballyhoo: [20] Ballyhoo remains an etymological mystery, but there is no shortage of suggested candidates as its source: an Irish village called Ballyhooly; an old nautical slang word ballyhoo meaning ‘unseaworthy vessel’, which seems to have been an anglicization of Spanish balahú ‘schooner’; and the bizarre late- 19th-century ballyhoo bird, a fake bird made of wood and cardboard and intended to fool a birdhunter. None of them, alas, seems remotely relevant to ballyhoo’s original American sense, ‘barker’s patter outside a circus tent, to encourage people to enter’.
- ballyhoo (n.)
- "publicity, hype," 1908, from circus slang, "a short sample of a sideshow" (1901), which is of unknown origin. There is a village of Ballyhooly in County Cork, Ireland. In nautical lingo, ballahou or ballahoo (1867, perhaps 1836) meant "an ungainly vessel," from Spanish balahu "schooner."
Example
- 1. It better be good after all this ballyhoo .
- 2. I saw through all the ballyhoo .
- 3. The candidate 's campaign was attended with too ballyhoo .
- 4. We find newspaper ballyhoo difficult to live with .
- 5. The candidate 's campaign was attended with too much ballyhoo .