Neat! Almost certainly not the real etymology, but neat.
From earlier (15c.) boh, coined to create a loud and startling sound. Compare Middle English bus! (“bang!”, interjection), Latin boō (“cry aloud, roar, shout”, verb), Ancient Greek βοάω (boáō, “shout”, verb).
This gave me Forwards from Grandma vibes, too, but it appears to be basically true – except that it means ‘I cry’ or ‘I shout’, not ‘I alarm’. And as a fun note, it’s been shortened over time from ‘to say boo to a goose’, which is fun.
boo (interj.)
early 15c., boh, "A combination of consonant and vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound" [OED, which compares Latin boare, Greek boaein"to cry aloud, roar, shout"]; as an expression of disapproval, 1884 (n.); hence, the verb meaning "shower (someone) with boos" (1885).
Not quite. When OED says ‘compare’ it’s just suggesting similarities, not a provable link.
The actual referenced OED page for boo leads to an older form (‘bo’), which then compares it to the sound of a cow or to a reduplication of the earlier exclamation ‘ho’.
The most likely explanation seems to be that it’s just a good combination of sounds, and the similar Latin & Greek forms were derived independently for the same reason.
Welcome to /c/tumblr, a place for all your tumblr screenshots and news.
Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.
Must be tumblr related. This one is kind of a given.
Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
No unnecessary negativity. Just because you don't like a thing doesn't mean that you need to spend the entire comment section complaining about said thing. Just downvote and move on.
Sister Communities:
/c/TenForward@lemmy.world - Star Trek chat, memes and shitposts
/c/Memes@lemmy.world - General memes
