hep?

[swedeheart]

Okay so this is a very odd question but I need the information, so...

I'm trying to identify an interjection typically used by... erm... acrobats...? at the moment they've successfully accomplished whatever it was they were trying to do - fly through the air and land on top of a pyramid of their fellow acrobats, or whatever. Sounds like "Hep!" and seems to say "I did it! Seemed impossible to you, didn't it, but there it is!" as well as "This would be a good time to clap".

I don't what language to search in.

[Quizmonster]

Aye, 'ere's deil 'e thing else for't, Ah doot!

Sorry for this intrusion into your thread, SH. I couldn't resist swapping a bit of Doric with TCL. But I'll leave it at that.

[woofas]

Many, many years ago when I was but a lad - acrobats & other circus performers used to shout "Allez oop" when lauching themselves into a trick. Presumably the origin lies in the French language, "allez" meaning go. I suspect the "oop" was just a noise to accompany the effort. Like many other phrases, the "allez" has been dropped with time leaving just the "oop", with its regional variations in pronunciation.

[swedeheart]

<good god they're all wearing kilts now>

woofas you don't know how interesting that is! Indeed there is such a phrase still alive and kicking in the French language, and it seems to be "a French onomatope simulating the sound of a little leap", according to the somewhat arrogant Arbiter here

Arbiter is probably right but it also just happens to be a fact that even the Swedish word for Jump! is 'hoppa', similar to your own 'hop', so who's to say what came first to the acrobats, the word or the sound, if you see what I mean. Words do go around the world. (I agree that originally it's probably an onomatope, though.) And yes it does seem this would be uttered before performing a trick and not after. It's comedians wot do it after, then. I conclude, then, that there isn't really an English hup word that leads the mind in the same direction as I was after. The comedian says boom boom and the acrobat says hop, only, he does it before, not after. Thanks ever so much, this has been very useful for me.

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PS. Quizmonster it's okay, really it is, it's just that... well... you know...

H�pp!

[Quizmonster]

SH, I've never actually worn a kilt in my life. As Billy Connolly says, "The only people in Scotland who make a habit of wearing kilts are barristers in Edinburgh; highlanders wear dungarees."
If I ever did don the garment, however, I would do so in the manner prescribed by Scottish regimental tradition, whether that horrified small animals or not.
As kilted Scotsmen supposedly say to any young woman who asks, "What's worn under the kilt?"..."There's naethin' worn under ma kilt, lassie; it's a' in perfect workin' order!"

Mind you, I probably would not undertake too much in the way of ladder-work or tree-climbing!

[swedeheart]

Ha ha ha - will do my best to shake that image, Quizmonster ;-) Oh so you are a Scotsman - I thought you were just shooting the linguist breeze with TCL.