Comments on: Hurrah’s Nest

By: Ellen

Ellen — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 14:25:52 +0000

My dad (whose grandfather was Scots) who was raised in Maine- always used the term Hoorah’s nest for any big mess.

By: Marti Burger

Marti Burger — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 17:56:30 +0000

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.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:10:04 +0000

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.

By: Virginia

Virginia — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 18:53:09 +0000

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!!

By: Jack Tarr

Jack Tarr — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:25:36 +0000

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.

By: E.

E. — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 05:57:22 +0000

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…

By: Christopher Wilson

Christopher Wilson — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 23:54:37 +0000

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.

By: EB

EB — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:12:37 +0000

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.

By: Cee Dee

Cee Dee — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 13:17:13 +0000

“Hoorah’s Nest” was just one of the many “sayings” my Mother used. She was a 7th generation Virginian, if that means anything.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 16:02:31 +0000

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

By: B E Daniels

B E Daniels — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:47:01 +0000

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.

By: M.L. Barker

M.L. Barker — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:02:01 +0000

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.”