Hooah knows? - Wordsmith.org

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This weekend I ran across the word "hooah," in use by the fella who would be my brother-in-law if I went and got married, which I ain't gonna do, and she ain't either.

In any case - he is in the Army reserves (about to go active...yikes) and introduced me to this term. It is apparently used in the Army to mean just about anything - he likened it to the accursed term "smurf" and its widespread usage in the early '80s or so. After googling around a bit, I found this list of suggested meanings, which I assume is not intended to exclude other possible meanings:

1.Good copy, solid copy, roger, good or great; message received, understood.
2.Glad to meet you; welcome.
3.I do not know, but will check on it.
4.I haven't the vaguest idea.
5.I am not listening.
6.That is enough of your drivel--sit down.
7.Stop sniveling.
8.You've got to be kidding.
9.Yes.
10.Thank you.
11.Go to the next [briefing] slide.
12.You have taken the correct action.
13.I don't know what that means, but am too embarrassed to ask for clarification.
14.That is really neat, I want one too.
15.Amen.

What I couldn't find is where the heck this comes from. I was also curious as to when it came into use. I know we've got at least a couple of former servicemen here (BobY, Dr. Bill), but am not sure if any of them were Army - and apparently other branches of the armed services have their own equivalent terms.

So - any ideas where the Army got "hooah" or other suggestions for use of this flexible word?

Hi Hyla! Good to see you back around!

In the brilliant film, Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino turns in, IMHO, one of the greatest screen performances ever, and hooah! is the pet expression of his surly blind character, Lt. Com. Frank Slade. I was never sure how to spell it, though...thought I "saw" a "w" in front of it.

In fact, I'd tell any aspiring actor to go and watch Scent of a Woman four or five times, and if Pacino's performance doesn't do anything for you, then do something else. 'Cause that's acting!

The way he inflects hooah! in the film (and it varies, of course, in nuance from scene to scene) is something akin to a mix of a cynical hurrah! and touch�.

But rent the movie and see what you think...it's worth watching anyway, even if you've seen it before.

Here's some stills from the flick:
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/foxybrown/515/scentofawoman.html

[excited edit!!]: Hyla! I found a site for the film with an audio sound bite of Whoooah, spelt with the "w" and an extra "o"! Here:

http://www.geocities.com/aaronbcaldwell/Scent.html

I used to use Pacino's hoooah! in lieu of AoL's "you've got mail!" : )

(insert witticism here)

Another of my favorite movies. Great show.

I can't judge the acting except to say that I just really, really like it.

My favorite scene is where he's taking the boy's defense and telling them he'd like to take a flame-thrower to the place. Gives me shivers every time.

k

Whoooah, Whit, what a great addition to an interesting discussion was the URLing of the sound bite.

On the other hand, I thought the movie The Scent of a Woman, as well as Pacino's acting, was exceedingly unbrilliant, to the extent of being mediocre.

Further, the expression Whooah would not serve it's function if it's meaning had perimeters that we could affix. The function of in-group words like Whooah is to solidify the in-group, exclude the out-group, and to strengthen the belief in the rightness of their mutual action. Vagueness is the necessary vogue.

And a "sincere" Gung-Ho and Good night, and a THANK YOU to all the Jar-Heads all over the Globe.

and hooah! is the pet expression of his surly blind character,

Thank you, W'ON, I could hear the voice in my head spooky... and couldn't think of where it was from. Thanks for saving me from having to kick myself...

And, IMHO, De Niro's performance in this was pretty darn good. Up there with Denzel in Training Day... [tongue in cheek-e]

Hev

Well, Hyla, I'm ex-Army and have never heard it in any of the meanings you suggest. Which is not to say I have never heard it, but probably not the same word. What I have heard is a pronunciation used in certain parts of the South for a one-syllable word meaning 'a lady of the night', which is pronounced frequently in these parts as a homonym for a word denoting a garden tool.

[2c]

I thought it started as a Marine thing.

[/2c]

I've been around Army types for a long while ... and had not heard the whooah word (noise?) until the last ten years. Have sent Email to The Major and await a response ... may be awhile but I will post if (when) get the word.
Whooah!

Hyla, even though you're not around much

, you always manage to come up with the most intriguing posts! My teenage dau. says Hooah, as kind of a sardonic hooray. I wonder if some of these widespread-but-unknown-etymology things like this, and maybe indianaugust's 'gimme a break' got their fame from the movies, television, or radio? For ex., in twenty years, how many people under 30 will know where "make my day" came from?
Good to have you back, sir!

Darn it - BYB beat me to it!

I was gonna say suh, that this esteemed place should not be sullied by mention of hooahs. As gentlemen suh, we do not speak of these things in public. That, suh, would not be correct.

stales

I was watching a Discovery channel show about Navy SEALS training. At one point a young man who has been in the water too long has started to develop early hypothermia. He is pulled into the boat and as he shivers he he looks around, confused, his eyes like a little puppy's, and he says "What's going on?" Then 10 minutes later, the instructors ask him how he's doing and, still pretty confused, he croaks out "Hooah!" It was pretty funny. I told my girlfriend that they ought to let him pass training just for that.

As gentlemen

Huh?

Hooah would've thought it?

Hev