Brouhaha

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Brouhaha

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:42 pm

• brouhaha •


Pronunciation: bru-hah-hah • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Commotion, uproar, rumpus, racket, clamor, tumult. 2. Hubbub, hullabaloo, confused excited contention.

Notes: This word is so odd and isolated that it has no lexical relatives other than plural brouhahas. Do make sure you place the accent on the first syllable and not the second, where it would more naturally fall in English. Also be sure to include the O since this word is often misspelled bruhaha. It might help to remember that even though beer may lead to a brouhaha, the spelling brewhaha should also be avoided except in jest.

In Play: Brouhahas are closely associated with sporting events in the US: "No one was laughing after the brouhaha that erupted when the umpire called Wiley Slider out at home plate." Any excited contentious situation may be characterized as a brouhaha: "Yes, there was quite a family brouhaha when Sue Barew came home with the nose tattoo and a lip ring."

Word History: This funny word comes from 16th century French brouhaha, taken from a chant by a priest disguised as the devil in a late 15th century French farce: "Brou brou brou ha ha, brou ha ha!" It is possible that the playwright simply made up sounds imitating confused speech. But it is also very possible that it comes from the Hebrew phrase barukh habba "blessed be he who enters," frequently heard in Jewish ceremonies and suspiciously similar to barruccaba "hubbub" in Italian dialects. When most school children studied Latin and Greek, Hebrew to them was the equivalent of Greek in the English idiom "it's all Greek to me". The derivation would then parallel that of English patter "speak rapidly", which came from Latin pater noster "our Father".
• The Good Dr. Goodword

George Kovac

Re: Brouhaha

Postby George Kovac » Sun Jul 19, 2015 9:23 pm

The zany Firesign Theater comedy albums of the 1970s, apart from their off beat entertainment value, were a rich source of bizarre vocabulary words, usually used and misused in rapid succession. Phil Austin, the voice of the character Nick Danger, the artless noir private detective, died June 18 and his passing was widely noted. In one of those audio sketch comedy bits, Firesign Theater used the word "brouhaha," the first time I encountered that delightful word. On the naked page, the dialog may seem, well, just weird, but spoken by the characters, the numerous nervous bouts of laughter by both characters ("ha ha") served to underscore the delightful sound of today's odd GoodWord.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the script of that episode, (and yes, the mansion was referred to later in the episode as the "old Same place"):

NICK

Four hours later I parked my car in the carriage house and [cornstarch footsteps sound effect] walked up a grey gravel driveway between a line of dwarf maples towards the pillared entrance of the Same Mansion. It had been snowing in Santa Barbara ever since the top of the page and I had to shake the cornstarch off my mukluks as I lifted the heavy obsidian doorknocker. Hey in there... open up. Your doorknocker fell off.

CATHERWOOD

[sound of door opening] What's all this brouhaha?

NICK

Brouhaha? Ha ha ha...

CATHERWOOD

Ha ha ha ha ha.... [slams door in his face]

NICK DANGER
wait a minute hey don’t you want this door knocker?

CATHERWOOD We already have one!


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