Hurrah’s Nest
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Karen:
January 16th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
I asked Martha Barnette of A Way With Words about my mother’s phrase “hihola’s nest” which she often used to describe the state of my room. Martha suggested “hoorah’s nest” but had no info on its origin. So, is the hihola a species related to the hurrah? I always had a picture in my mind of the bird that conned Horton into sitting on her egg (Dr. Seuss)
Eduard:
January 26th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
I first heard “Your room looks like a Hoorah’s nest”, some 70 years ago . She was born on her parents’ farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where there were still many ex-slaves living and working. As a young girl, she spent a great deal of her time with her black “nanny” and her young daughter, who was the same age as my mother, was her playmate.
Mother claimed that she first heard this phrase from her “nanny” – and attributed its origin to the black slave community. She also told me that a Hoorah was a large, colourful bird who had a very messy nest – full of useless stuff – and was generally credited with and blamed for creating any unexplained (or unexplainable) mess.
M.L. Barker:
July 18th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
M’y mother, a Southerner, used “hoorah’s nest” all the time, often referring to her hair. When asked what a hoorah was she replied “It’s a bird that sticks it’s head in the sand and whistles through its butt.”
B E Daniels:
November 13th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
My mother also referred to my unruling hair as a hoorah’s nest!! She also told me that it was a colorfully bird with a messing nest! I always remember something about whistling thur it’s butt.
Nancy:
August 20th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
My mother used that expression about my room, too. But she was Boston-bred (MA), and I grew up near there. Interestingly enough, the only other person that I’ve run into familiar with the expression grew up in Alaska. But the only written instance either of us ever came across was in Marguerite Henry’s children’s book _Misty of Chincoteague_. (Which takes place in Virginia.)
Definition info also at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hurrah%27s%20nest
Cee Dee:
June 2nd, 2014 at 9:17 am
“Hoorah’s Nest” was just one of the many “sayings” my Mother used. She was a 7th generation Virginian, if that means anything.
EB:
February 12th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
I first encountered the expression in Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” (1840), in which he describes hurrah’s nest as an old sailors’ expression. My impression was that, at the time, hurrah was (in addition to its other meanings) a slang expression referring to a crow (presumed derivation: the sound a crow makes is a lot like the word). Crows are intelligent birds, and they collect all kinds of interesting but useless things to decorate their nests.
Christopher Wilson:
July 25th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
My mother (89) still speaks of a room looking like “hooraw’s nest”. She learned it from her mother and live-in grandmother, the latter born in 1853 on a plantation in Rowan County, North Carolina.
I undertook some forty years ago, back when people went to the library to learn things, to find the origin of this term. A “Hurrah’s Nest” was the big coil of mooring rope kept upright between stanchions on the deck of a ship. When out at sea for weeks or months, cleaning the deck was done twice daily and loose objects left around often would be tossed into the center of the coil of rope, since it wasn’t needed until reaching port. Shoes were crappy, decks were crappy, and it was important not to have more crap rolling around underfoot when keeping one’s footing was hard enough! One might well imagine what was in there–anything not best tossed overboard–brushes, rags, tools, boots, gloves, belaying pins, whatever.
E.:
February 23rd, 2016 at 12:57 am
My grandma is in her mid 80s. She grew up in southern Maryland, in an area called Aquasco.
I’m in my late 40s. I can recall many days when I was in my teens, when she admonished me to clean my room because it looked like a hoorah’s nest.
Never knew what a “hoorah” was and never asked but I always wondered…
Jack Tarr:
August 28th, 2017 at 9:25 am
Melville also uses the term in a nautical setting, in “White Jacket” (1850), to refer to hub-bub, noise, disorder.
“‘What’s this hurrah’s nest here aloft?’ cried Jack Chase, coming up the t’gallant rigging from the topsail-yard.” (chap. 56)
Melville of course knew Dana’s book well but also had his own nautical experience to draw on.
Virginia:
November 17th, 2019 at 1:53 pm
All my life I heard my mother say, “her hair looks just like a hooraw’s nest.” I saw on your site the possible etiology of this term. I can honestly say my hair looks just like a hurraw’s nest. Not to mention it’s red and curly. For some strange reason I like it!!
Margaret:
November 18th, 2019 at 9:10 am
And now switching to Canada, I grew up in Nova Scotia, my parents, and so forth, for at least 200 years. However, my Mum’s ancestors were from Ireland, and my Dad’s from Scotland. And I have always heard hurrah’s nest, mostly applied to hair, and bedroom, but also to a balled up mess of limbs that grows on trees sometimes. My Husband also grew up with it, and his family is English. I guess the thing is, New England is so close, there was a lot of commerce between the areas, as well as resettlement, either direction.
Marti Burger:
December 27th, 2020 at 12:56 pm
Also spelled hurrah’s nest or hooraw’s nest, this means “an untidy mess” or “a commotion.” Its origin is uncertain. In 1829, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described someone as having a head like a hurra’s nest. The term’s origin is obscure, although it might have to do with the nest of an imaginary creature.
Ellen:
March 21st, 2021 at 10:25 am
My dad (whose grandfather was Scots) who was raised in Maine- always used the term Hoorah’s nest for any big mess.