Hoopla: Not All That?
Friday, July 07, 2006 - 02:59 PM
This recent letter to the FT has caused a shift in the way we here think about hoopla
June 3, 2006 Saturday
London Edition 1
SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 132 words
HEADLINE: Big brouhaha over misuse of 'hoopla'
BYLINE: By COLIN J MORLEY
From Mr Colin J. Morley.
Sir, If I had one euro for each occasion that I have seen "hoopla" misused in the press during the past decade, I should be quite wealthy.
I am sorry to see that this misuse has now spread to your esteemed columns ("Falling in love with Things", FT Collecting, May 27/28).
"Hoopla" is nothing but a fairground game, in which one throws a wooden hoop over the object one hopes to secure as a prize; it is not a synonym for fuss, commotion, disturbance, brouhaha or even the inelegant hoo-ha, any of which would seem to represent what your correspondent had in mind.
It may be that "hoopla" has become distorted in American or Canadian slang to mean noise or bustle, but please let us not import it into the Queen's English in that sense.
Colin J. Morley,
Limassol, 4521, Cyprus
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