What about the expression “whoop-di-do!”, defined as “Exclam. An expression of joy, however is often used sarcastically. [Orig. U.S.]” at http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/w.htm – the Dictionary of Slang?
Rosemarie:
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Regarding the connection between “Coupe de” and “Hooptie”, I think it’s even more plausible than you do. “Coupe de Ville” is a French expression; and trying to pronounce “coupe de” with a fake French accent could easily produce “khhhooptie”; then slur into the more easily pronounced “hooptie.” Just my humble opinion!
Thomas Brown:
February 4th, 2011 at 7:46 am
I’m with Tom Drinane. The hooptie is another kettle of fish. I’ve heard whoop-di-do shortened to “hoop-di”, uttered with eyes ablaze, fingers stretched on each side of the face, implying “hoity-toity” or in plain English, “big deal!”. I can see how this connotation could derive from “coupe de” as in “coupe de ville”.
nina M:
February 28th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Here in Canada , I have heard the expression of an item being hooped. As in “that washing machine is hooped” meaning that there is no fixing it and it is not worth new parts. Any connection with a car ?
Rick:
May 26th, 2011 at 9:04 am
I grew up in the 50s in Arkansas hearing my grandpa and other old timers who were around when the automobile was invented, use the term “hoopy” for a dilapidated car. I never heard the the term “hooptie” until the last few years, so it seems to me that “hooptie” is a resurrected variation of the original, “hoopy.” I am a purist. I think “hooptie” just sounds like a polluted attempt at remembering a word by someone who just didn’t know :)
Dan:
June 27th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I, too, was raised in the deep south in the 1960s, and my canadian grandparents had OLD, rusted, “nail-starts-the-ignition” cars that they called “hoopie-wagons” and “hoopters”. Well predating the “Coupe-D” resurrection of the term. So I’m backing Nina and Rick’s versions of history.
vENGe:
April 1st, 2013 at 12:07 am
Understand this.. All you need is a couple of parrots and you could say “dope”.. meaning cool, interesting..before you know it millions are repeating it.. as far as “whooptie” goes i coined it 20 years ago also “Bling” “junk in the trunk” “PRIVY” meaning “privledged”…also “Out of the blue” “bolt” “it is what is” “out and about” – was originally “out and all about… me” “vent” “thrown under the bus” “pick6″-(sports term) “cha ching” “puttin me on the spot”
“light you up- lightin it up” “you fell off” “off the hook” i got many many more i coined email me at veng1016@hotmail.com if you would like to know more about the story on some of these slang terms i have the world repeating :)
Andrew Hooper:
April 28th, 2014 at 6:53 pm
The credit goes to Andy Hooper , he would sit at Totem Lake Ford/Toyota in the Mid 1980s and buy the junkier cars off the lot, He did not have a dealers license at the time but the managers would sell it too him like any other car getting a “RED DOT” so when the owner called in to see how many cars were sold they could always count on Hooper buying a car a day… As the salesmen moved from dealer to dealer they would call him to come in and buy a “Hooper” special as the years went buy it was shortend to the term Hooptie…Theres alot more to this story.
Knotts:
July 24th, 2015 at 11:35 am
merle haggard recorded Shade Tree Fix It Man in 1965. In it, he sings, “headed out west from Arkansas, my hoopie ran fine for a while”.
That’s the first time I heard the term.
Jaxson:
May 2nd, 2016 at 11:24 pm
Knotts is correct. 1965 , Merle Haggard did sing verse “my hoopie ran fine for while”. I’ve heard the term hoopie used in the Ozarks in the mid-60’s. I thought, at the time, it referred to the tattered jalopy’s that the poor folks drove. My dad (from Missouri Ozarks) used that ‘hoopie’ term when he referred to some old convertible or 1930’s wood frame car with a long-gone fabric top — the bows, or old hoops, were all that barely held the car roof together. Akin to rusty old barrel hoops that barely held a rain barrel together.
Robin G:
November 22nd, 2019 at 8:07 am
Fast forward to November 21, 2019 – a member of the House of Representatives, Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, used the term ‘hooptie’ in expressing concern about the 60 year old planes flying for the U.S. as part of the Open Skies program. Thank you Representative Cleaver and thanks to this website for this cool new addition to my vocabulary. I now know that in addition to calling my 2001 Saturn SL2 a jalopy, I can also call it a hooptie.
I grew up in Central Texas in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and we routinely used “hoopy” to refer to a worn-out jalopy.
Rip Van Winkle:
November 28th, 2020 at 7:52 pm
My grandmother told me they used the term Hoopie to describe an old car with barely enough parts to run and move. Totally worn out with no redeeming qualities. This was back in the 1920’s. Cadillac had no bearing on that word, and the people nowadays think it is from the 60’s; they are WRONG!
Bill Lavery:
December 26th, 2020 at 6:29 pm
I am transcribing an old letter from 1933 with a reference to an old car, calling it a “hoopie”.
Cuvtixo:
February 27th, 2021 at 10:53 pm
The last two references point to the 1930s and even the ’20s. But, perhaps we should consider even older origins, like nicknames for horse-drawn wagons, particularly during U.S.settlers moving west. I can imagine one such reference: wagon wheels that are better fit as barrel hoops. It’s stretching, I know; purely speculative. But I think there’s a good chance that there are obvious references to beat-up, worn out carriages or wagons or perhaps specifically the horses that pulled them. I live near one such famous route, and a lot of that history just isn’t in the history books
Joebud:
September 14th, 2021 at 10:34 pm
Asked this question to my black brother coworker a few decades ago. What’s a Hooptie? He told me it was car in such bad shape that still drove but if it died then Hooptie shit just leave it.
Ryan:
September 25th, 2021 at 2:15 pm
I always thought it came from the Hupp Motor Car Company and the Hupmobiles after they failed by 1940.
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Tom Drinane:
January 30th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
What about the expression “whoop-di-do!”, defined as “Exclam. An expression of joy, however is often used sarcastically. [Orig. U.S.]” at http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/w.htm – the Dictionary of Slang?
Rosemarie:
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Regarding the connection between “Coupe de” and “Hooptie”, I think it’s even more plausible than you do. “Coupe de Ville” is a French expression; and trying to pronounce “coupe de” with a fake French accent could easily produce “khhhooptie”; then slur into the more easily pronounced “hooptie.” Just my humble opinion!
Thomas Brown:
February 4th, 2011 at 7:46 am
I’m with Tom Drinane. The hooptie is another kettle of fish. I’ve heard whoop-di-do shortened to “hoop-di”, uttered with eyes ablaze, fingers stretched on each side of the face, implying “hoity-toity” or in plain English, “big deal!”. I can see how this connotation could derive from “coupe de” as in “coupe de ville”.
nina M:
February 28th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Here in Canada , I have heard the expression of an item being hooped. As in “that washing machine is hooped” meaning that there is no fixing it and it is not worth new parts. Any connection with a car ?
Rick:
May 26th, 2011 at 9:04 am
I grew up in the 50s in Arkansas hearing my grandpa and other old timers who were around when the automobile was invented, use the term “hoopy” for a dilapidated car. I never heard the the term “hooptie” until the last few years, so it seems to me that “hooptie” is a resurrected variation of the original, “hoopy.” I am a purist. I think “hooptie” just sounds like a polluted attempt at remembering a word by someone who just didn’t know :)
Dan:
June 27th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I, too, was raised in the deep south in the 1960s, and my canadian grandparents had OLD, rusted, “nail-starts-the-ignition” cars that they called “hoopie-wagons” and “hoopters”. Well predating the “Coupe-D” resurrection of the term. So I’m backing Nina and Rick’s versions of history.
vENGe:
April 1st, 2013 at 12:07 am
Understand this.. All you need is a couple of parrots and you could say “dope”.. meaning cool, interesting..before you know it millions are repeating it.. as far as “whooptie” goes i coined it 20 years ago also “Bling” “junk in the trunk” “PRIVY” meaning “privledged”…also “Out of the blue” “bolt” “it is what is” “out and about” – was originally “out and all about… me” “vent” “thrown under the bus” “pick6″-(sports term) “cha ching” “puttin me on the spot”
“light you up- lightin it up” “you fell off” “off the hook” i got many many more i coined email me at veng1016@hotmail.com if you would like to know more about the story on some of these slang terms i have the world repeating :)
Andrew Hooper:
April 28th, 2014 at 6:53 pm
The credit goes to Andy Hooper , he would sit at Totem Lake Ford/Toyota in the Mid 1980s and buy the junkier cars off the lot, He did not have a dealers license at the time but the managers would sell it too him like any other car getting a “RED DOT” so when the owner called in to see how many cars were sold they could always count on Hooper buying a car a day… As the salesmen moved from dealer to dealer they would call him to come in and buy a “Hooper” special as the years went buy it was shortend to the term Hooptie…Theres alot more to this story.
Knotts:
July 24th, 2015 at 11:35 am
merle haggard recorded Shade Tree Fix It Man in 1965. In it, he sings, “headed out west from Arkansas, my hoopie ran fine for a while”.
That’s the first time I heard the term.
Jaxson:
May 2nd, 2016 at 11:24 pm
Knotts is correct. 1965 , Merle Haggard did sing verse “my hoopie ran fine for while”. I’ve heard the term hoopie used in the Ozarks in the mid-60’s. I thought, at the time, it referred to the tattered jalopy’s that the poor folks drove. My dad (from Missouri Ozarks) used that ‘hoopie’ term when he referred to some old convertible or 1930’s wood frame car with a long-gone fabric top — the bows, or old hoops, were all that barely held the car roof together. Akin to rusty old barrel hoops that barely held a rain barrel together.
Robin G:
November 22nd, 2019 at 8:07 am
Fast forward to November 21, 2019 – a member of the House of Representatives, Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, used the term ‘hooptie’ in expressing concern about the 60 year old planes flying for the U.S. as part of the Open Skies program. Thank you Representative Cleaver and thanks to this website for this cool new addition to my vocabulary. I now know that in addition to calling my 2001 Saturn SL2 a jalopy, I can also call it a hooptie.
Louise Jackson:
August 23rd, 2020 at 3:05 pm
I grew up in Central Texas in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and we routinely used “hoopy” to refer to a worn-out jalopy.
Rip Van Winkle:
November 28th, 2020 at 7:52 pm
My grandmother told me they used the term Hoopie to describe an old car with barely enough parts to run and move. Totally worn out with no redeeming qualities. This was back in the 1920’s. Cadillac had no bearing on that word, and the people nowadays think it is from the 60’s; they are WRONG!
Bill Lavery:
December 26th, 2020 at 6:29 pm
I am transcribing an old letter from 1933 with a reference to an old car, calling it a “hoopie”.
Cuvtixo:
February 27th, 2021 at 10:53 pm
The last two references point to the 1930s and even the ’20s. But, perhaps we should consider even older origins, like nicknames for horse-drawn wagons, particularly during U.S.settlers moving west. I can imagine one such reference: wagon wheels that are better fit as barrel hoops. It’s stretching, I know; purely speculative. But I think there’s a good chance that there are obvious references to beat-up, worn out carriages or wagons or perhaps specifically the horses that pulled them. I live near one such famous route, and a lot of that history just isn’t in the history books
Joebud:
September 14th, 2021 at 10:34 pm
Asked this question to my black brother coworker a few decades ago. What’s a Hooptie? He told me it was car in such bad shape that still drove but if it died then Hooptie shit just leave it.
Ryan:
September 25th, 2021 at 2:15 pm
I always thought it came from the Hupp Motor Car Company and the Hupmobiles after they failed by 1940.