hula

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hawaiian hula,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also hulahula, a reduplication of hula, which gave the English variant hula-hula.^[7][8][5] The verb is formed from the noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A traditional Hawaiian dance in which gestures portray natural events, history or myths: 1825, in W. Ellis's journal of a tour of Hawaii.^[2][3][5] Barnhart dates it to about 1835,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1815–25.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The OED describes the dance as having six basic steps, with gestures that imitate or symbolize natural phenomena, sports and historical or mythical events.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that men and women dance it, singly or together, usually to chants and drumming, and also uses the word for the music of the dance,^[5] while Collins describes it as danced by a woman.^[6] The verb, to dance a hula, is American English from 1952 in Barnhart and Etymonline,^[7][3] and the OED's first record is from 1954.^[2] The hula hoop, recorded from 1958, when it was a craze, was named for the resemblance of its users' hip movements to those of hula dancers.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1825 – a Hawaiian dance.^[2][3][5]
• 1952 – verb, to dance the hula.^[7][3] The OED's first record is from 1954.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Hawaiian dance in which flowing movements of the hips and hands tell a story, usually performed to chants and drums: The children learned a hula for the festival.^[5][2][6]
2. The music that accompanies such a dance.^[5]

Verb

1. To dance a hula.^[5][2][8]

Word family

• hula hoop
• hula skirt

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House