hoop

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hop, also hoop and hope,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English hōp,^{[6][2][3][7][8][5]} a late Old English word;^[6][8] Etymonline and Barnhart take the Old English form as unrecorded.^[9][10] It comes from Proto-Germanic *hōpą,^[1][9] and is related to Old Frisian hōp (“ring, hoop”), Middle Dutch hoep and Dutch hoep.^{[6][9][10][2][5]} The OED notes that the word is not known outside Frisian and Low German, and Hoad calls it West Germanic.^[6][8] Etymonline, Hoad and Klein also compare Old Norse hóp (“small land-locked bay”).^[9][8][5] Barnhart and Klein relate it to Lithuanian kabė (“hook”), and Barnhart derives both from Proto-Indo-European *kab-;^[11][5][2] Merriam-Webster adds, with a "perhaps", Old Irish camm (“crooked”),^[2] while Etymonline thinks that the original meaning must have been "curve, ring" but calls the Indo-European etymology uncertain.^[9] The verb, recorded from about 1440, is from the noun.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A circular band or ring of metal, wood or other stiff material, especially one binding the staves of a cask or tub: before 1175, in the History of the Holy Rood.^[6][10] Etymonline dates it to the late 12th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Early on the word was used for rings of many kinds: a finger-ring (1507),^[6] a measure of corn (1520),^[6] any circular figure (1530).^[6] From 1548 it also named the hoops that spread out a woman's skirt,^[6][9] which gave the hoop-petticoat (1711) and the hoop skirt (1856).^[9] In the 16th century a hoop was also one of the bands on a quart pot, or the drink between two of them.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as anything circular by which something else is bound, especially casks, and quoted Shakespeare's "a hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in".^[12] The child's hoop, bowled along the ground, is recorded from 1792, and the circus hoop that performers or animals leap through from 1793;^[6][9] the figurative jump through hoops dates from 1917.^[9] The basketball sense is from 1893,^[9] and in American slang hoop has also meant to play basketball.^[13] The surname Hooper, a maker of hoops, is recorded from the early 13th century.^[9] In northern English dialect the word could be pronounced heup or heäp, and in Suffolk a hoop was a wooden frame put round stored apples.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1175 – a circular band of metal or wood.^[6]
• 1403 – in tavern signs.^[6]
• c. 1440 – verb, to bind with hoops.^[6][9]
• 1507 – a finger-ring.^[6]
• 1548 – a hoop for spreading out a skirt.^[6][9]
• 1592 – a band on a quart pot (obsolete by 1609).^[6]
• 1711 – hoop-petticoat.^[9]
• 1792 – a child's hoop.^[6][9]
• 1793 – a ring that circus performers jump through.^[6][9]
• 1893 – in basketball.^[9]
• 1917 – jump through hoops, figurative.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A circular band of metal or wood, especially one put around a cask or barrel to hold the staves together.^[15][2][4]
2. A large ring used as a toy, rolled along or whirled around the body, or for performers and trained animals to jump through.^[15][4][16]
3. A light circular frame used to spread out a skirt; a hoop skirt.^[15][4][16]
4. One of a pair of rings that hold fabric taut for embroidery.^[4][2]
5. In croquet, one of the iron arches through which the ball is hit.^[15][16]
6. In basketball, the metal ring to which the net is attached; informally, in the plural, the game itself: They shot hoops after school.^[15][13]
7. A circular earring.^[4]
8. A horizontal band of contrasting colour on a sports shirt or cap.^[16]

Verb

1. To bind or fasten with hoops.^[2][6]
2. To encircle or surround as with a hoop.^[2][6]
3. To score in basketball.^[2]

Word family

• hooplike
• hooper
• hoopless
• hoopster
• cock-a-hoop
• hula-hoop
• hoop snake

Related words

• whoop
• hoopoe

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press