uproar

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch oproer (“revolt, tumult”) or Middle Low German uprōr,^[2][3][4] the OED leaving the choice open between the two;^[2] Barnhart, following Bense, thinks Tyndale most likely took it from Middle Low German and Coverdale from Dutch.^[5] The Dutch word, uproer in Middle Dutch,^[3][6] is formed from op (“up”) and roer (“motion, stirring”),^[7][3][8] so that it meant "a stirring up";^[9][10] it corresponds to Middle High German ûfruor and German Aufruhr,^[2][3] and to West Frisian oproer, Danish oprør, Norwegian upprør and Swedish uppror.^[2] The second part is akin to Old Saxon hrōra and Old High German ruora (“motion”),^[3] and to Old English hrēran (“to move, stir”), the source of rare "undercooked".^{[7][11][10][5]} Etymonline and Dictionary.com describe the English word as a loan translation of the German or Dutch word in the Bible.^[10][12] It has nothing to do with roar:^[8][11] the spelling and the sense of loud noise come from a mistaken association with it,^{[2][10][5][12]} which the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster call folk etymology.^[13][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An insurrection, a rising of the people: 1526, in Tyndale's New Testament, at Acts 21:38, of "that Egyptian which made an uproar".^[2][8][5] The OED notes that Tyndale and Coverdale used it where Luther's Bible has aufruhr, and that the Dutch Bible of 1563 has oproer in the same places.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was political, a revolt or a serious outbreak of disorder; it is now archaic.^[2][7][3] Because the word looked like up + roar, it soon came to mean loud shouting or the noise of a tumult, from 1544,^[2][5][8] and the phrase in an uproar, in a state of commotion or excitement, is recorded from 1548.^[2] Shakespeare used it figuratively in 1594 and as a verb, to throw into confusion, before 1616 in Macbeth.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as tumult, bustle, disturbance or confusion, and noted that it could be stressed on either syllable in verse.^[14] In Yorkshire, Westmorland and Durham dialect a house in an uproar was simply untidy, as on washing day.^[15] In British slang a heavy pun made the uproar the opera.^[16] The derivative uproarious dates from 1819.^[5]

Timeline

• 1526 – an insurrection or popular rising, in Tyndale's New Testament.^[2][5]
• 1535 – used in Coverdale's Bible.^[5]
• 1544 – loud outcry, the noise of a tumult.^[2][5]
• 1548 – in (an) uproar, in a state of commotion.^[2]
• 1594 – figurative uses, in Shakespeare's Lucrece.^[2]
• before 1616 – verb, to throw into confusion, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[2]
• 1834 – verb, to make an uproar, in Carlyle.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loud and confused noise; a clamour: The announcement was met with an uproar from the crowd.^[7][17]
2. A state of commotion, excitement or violent disturbance; a public outcry or protest: The whole town was in an uproar over the new tax.^[7][4][2]
3. (archaic) An insurrection or revolt.^[7][2][3]

Verb

1. (rare) To throw into an uproar or confusion.^[7][2]

Word family

• uproarious

Related words

• up
• rare
• roar

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins