Etymologically
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hoop

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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