ballyhoo, n. orig. U.S.
(bælɪˈhuː)
[Etym. unknown.]
A barker's touting speech; hence, blarney, bombastic nonsense; extravagant advertisement of any kind.
| 1901 World's Work Aug. 1100/2 First there is the ballyhoo—any sort of a performance outside the show, from the coon songs of the pickaninnies in front of the Old Plantation, to the tinkling tamborines of the dancers on the stage of ‘Around the World’. 1914 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 16 Bally hoo, noun. Current amongst exhibition and ‘flat-joint’ grafters. A free entertainment used for a decoy to attract customers. 1914 Philad. Even. Post 9 May, A live, little park full of side show tents..with..barkers spieling before the entrances and all the ballyhoos going at full blast. 1925 H. L. Foster Trop. Tramp Tourists 36 Above all, don't let them use a megaphone. It's too much like a ballyhoo. 1927 Daily Express 21 Sept. 1/2 Mr. Wiener, chairman of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission..calls Dempsey's letter ‘mere ballyhoo’. 1928 Ibid. 3 Mar. 9/3 Mr. McAndrew characterised Mr. Thompson's charges as ‘lies and ballyhoo’. 1932 D. B. Wyndham Lewis Emperor of West i. 9 Mr. Christopher Hollis has dealt fittingly with some of this popular pro-Elizabethan rhetoric or ballyhoo. |
Hence ballyˈhoo v. trans., to cajole by extravagant advertisement or praise (after the manner of a barker); to advertise or praise extravagantly. Also ballyˈhooer, ballyˈhooist, one indulging in ballyhooing.
| 1901 World's Work Aug. 1100/2 Last of the professions on the Midway are those of the ‘barker’, ‘ballyhooer’ and ‘spieler’. 1922 Collier's 4 Mar. 7/2, I don't like to ballyhoo myself..but here's a picture which will make you..bite your nails. 1927 Scots Observer 28 May, Our people will not be bullied and bally-hoed into churchgoing or anything else. 1928 Weekly Dispatch 6 May 15/2 How the late P. T. Barnum would have enjoyed ballyhoo-ing this new Drury Lane spectacle! 1941 Manch. Guardian 18 Apr. 8/5 War Weapons Week not Ballyhoo... ‘That, I think,’ he said, ‘is the complete answer to what I term the ballyhooists.’ 1948 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 24/1 They are ballyhooed, pushed, yelled, screamed, and in every way propagandized into the consciousness of the voters. 1950 ‘S. Ransome’ Deadly Miss Ashley ii. 17 The fortunes paid to ballyhooers of phony antiseptics. 1966 Economist 20 Aug. 748/1 British Rail is ballyhooing the pleasures of its electrified services a bit loudly. |