|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
My two cents... to me it sounds like the guy is expressing joy and abandon by exclaiming something like "HOOO-EE!"
The New Yorker ran a funny cartoon once about the "SKEEEW-WEEEEE!" girls and the "OWW!" guys out for a night.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I'd defiitely read it as a hollering out--a sound like whoopee. I think if it had been the car horn, Carver would have used honked or tooted instead here.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Mr. Frieda? What an unfortunate name with which to pursue a career in middle school administration...Yeah, we used to call him "Frieda Face"! 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
To confuse the issue even further
Then of course, there's the hoot as in owl, the sound an owl makes, hoot-owl. Truth be told, the mishievious hooting we did during that school incident was more like an owl's hoot than a wolf howl. Sometimes you see the owl sound spelled whoot.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
... but never wloot.
Except in the 12th century. I'm sure tsuwm has the reference. It may have been spelled wluwt.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
a hollering out--a sound like whoopee
So what sound would you make when you whooped, WW?
As I said above, that would be the verb I (and maybe most Brits) would use in this context.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Here's the line again: In reply to:
Jerry hooted as he whipped the car around.
OK. I hear that, Fish, as a hoot--or a whoopee, as I wrote--but as you pointed out, I've never heard whoopee used as a verb--only as an interjection. So, if I were bound and determined to use whoopee in this context, I'd really have to change the rhythm of the sentence and write:
Jerry shouted, "Whoopee!" as he whipped the car around......but I don't like that nearly as well as the original Jerry hooted as he whipped the car around. I was just making the point that when one hoots, one makes a sound, I would imagine, similar to Whoopee. Now that I think about it more deeply--glad I'm spending my morning this way, by the way--I don't think Whoopee is good at all. I like the hoot.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
when one hoots, one makes a sound ... similar to Whoopee
Whoo. Whoopee without the pee. Probably repeated. Whoo, whoo, whoo!
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,919
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
743
guests, and
3
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
