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It seems that the etymology is actually mistaken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hep-Hep_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hep-Hep_riots https://en.wiktionar

by schoen 4y ago

It seems that the etymology is actually mistaken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hep-Hep_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hep-Hep_riots https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hip_hip_hooray https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hip_hip_hooray I've heard the earlier theory (that it was an acronym for "Hierosolyma est perdita" which was supposed to have been a Crusader slogan), but Wiktionary thinks this is a false etymology. I'm Ashkenazi Jewish and have never heard any Jewish or non-Jewish person claim to have personally associated the "hip hip hooray" cheer with antisemitism. Perhaps that association, even if it's etymologically incorrect, would have been top-of-mind for many Europeans in the 1820s, but I don't think that's so today.

animuchan 4y ago
Moreover, the same "hip-hip hooray" rally cry was used by the Red Army, who (while not specifically siding with Jewish people) liberated quite a number of people from the death camps.
- azangru 4y ago
  > the same "hip-hip hooray" rally cry was used by the Red Army Which Red Army? Unless it's the Chinese Red Army (which I have no knowledge about), but rather the Russian (Soviet) Red Army, then, firstly, the battle cry of its soldiers was not "hip-hip hooray", but rather "ura" (cognate of the English "hurrah"); and, secondly, this battle cry is much older than the Red Army. It's an old word; almost certainly a borrowing into Russian; but in which century (seventeenth? sixteenth? older?), and from which language, I do not know.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Well, this is the first time I hear "Hipp, hipp, Hurra" (the proper German version, since hurray is definetly not German) being linked to the Nazis and anti-semitism... And us Germans are rather sensitive about that
shever73 4y ago
Yes, the use of "hip hip hip hoorah" (with three "hips") in English predates the Hep Hep riots. Most etymologies attributed to acronyms for words pre-20th century are usually false.

by schoen 4y ago

animuchan 4y ago

Moreover, the same "hip-hip hooray" rally cry was used by the Red Army, who (while not specifically siding with Jewish people) liberated quite a number of people from the death camps.

azangru 4y ago
> the same "hip-hip hooray" rally cry was used by the Red Army Which Red Army? Unless it's the Chinese Red Army (which I have no knowledge about), but rather the Russian (Soviet) Red Army, then, firstly, the battle cry of its soldiers was not "hip-hip hooray", but rather "ura" (cognate of the English "hurrah"); and, secondly, this battle cry is much older than the Red Army. It's an old word; almost certainly a borrowing into Russian; but in which century (seventeenth? sixteenth? older?), and from which language, I do not know.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Well, this is the first time I hear "Hipp, hipp, Hurra" (the proper German version, since hurray is definetly not German) being linked to the Nazis and anti-semitism... And us Germans are rather sensitive about that

shever73 4y ago

Yes, the use of "hip hip hip hoorah" (with three "hips") in English predates the Hep Hep riots. Most etymologies attributed to acronyms for words pre-20th century are usually false.