Etymology

hooley

hool·ey
H4O1O1L1E1Y4

Today it means: A noisy celebration or party; also, an evening of traditional music and dance. Full definition →

Scots hool(an) ← Old Norse ýlun
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The story

  1. Old Norse · derived fromýlun“howling, wailing”
  2. Scots · borrowed fromhool(an)“strong wind”
  3. English todayhooley

The etymology of sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown. Sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following: * Borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse ýlun (“howling, wailing”), from ýla (“to howl”) (ultimately onomatopoeic) + -un (suffix forming nouns). * From sense 1.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.