different between ballahoo vs ballyhoo

English

Alternative forms

• ballahou

Noun

ballahoo (plural ballahoos)

1. A fast-sailing schooner, used in the Bermudas and West Indies.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæli?hu?/

Etymology 1

Unknown.

Noun

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos)

1. Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
2. Noisy shouting or uproar.

Translations

Verb

ballyhoo (third-person singular simple present ballyhoos, present participle ballyhooing, simple past and past participle ballyhooed)

1. To sensationalise or make grand claims.
   • 1933 — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat (7 May)

     Industry has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight, farm prices are better, but I am not going to indulge in issuing proclamations of over-enthusiastic assurance. We cannot ballyhoo ourselves back to prosperity.

Translations

Related terms

• ballyhooed (adjective)

Etymology 2

From Spanish balajú.

Noun

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos)

1. Certain species in family Hemiramphidae, inshore, surface-dwelling needlefish forming sizeable schools.
   1. Hemiramphus brasiliensis

Translations

Etymology 3

Possibly from Spanish balahú (“schooner”).

Noun

ballyhoo (plural ballyhoos)

1. An unseaworthy or slovenly ship.

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) , “Ballyhoo”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, ?ISBN