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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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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.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Joined: Mar 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Mr. Frieda? What an unfortunate name with which to pursue a career in middle school administration...Yeah, we used to call him "Frieda Face"! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
... but never wloot.
Except in the 12th century. I'm sure tsuwm has the reference. It may have been spelled wluwt.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
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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.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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when one hoots, one makes a sound ... similar to Whoopee
Whoo. Whoopee without the pee. Probably repeated. Whoo, whoo, whoo!
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