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hubbub

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: hub-bub

English

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WOTD – 11 March 2026
Young women causing a hubbub (etymology 1, noun sense 1) by cheering and screaming during a visit by Barack Obama, the President of the United States, and his wife Michelle Obama to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, on 23 May 2011. Barack Obama is of Irish descent through his mother.

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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In early use, the noun is often mentioned as a cry by Irish people, and so is possibly borrowed from Irish; compare Irish ababú, abú (“used as a battle cry”), and Scottish Gaelic ub, ub, ubub (“used to express contempt, etc.”), ubh ubh (“used to express disgust”).[1]

The verb is derived from the noun.[2]

Noun

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hubbub (countable and uncountable, plural hubbubs)

  2. (countable) A confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; an uproar. [from mid 16th c.]
    Synonyms: (Ireland, archaic) hubbuboo, hue and cry, racket, tumult
  3. (by extension, uncountable) Noisy confusion; commotion, uproar; (countable) an instance of this; an ado, a commotion.
    Synonyms: (Ireland, archaic) hubbuboo, tumult; see also Thesaurus:commotion
  4. (countable, obsolete) A sound of people making a battle cry or war cry.
    Synonym: (Ireland, archaic) hubbuboo
Alternative forms
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Translations
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Verb

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hubbub (third-person singular simple present hubbubs, present participle hubbubbing or hubbubing, simple past and past participle hubbubbed or hubbubed)

  1. (intransitive, rare) To make a confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; to cause a racket or tumult.
    • 1831 December, [John Wilson], “[William] Sotheby’s Homer. Critique IV. Achilles. Part I.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXI, number CLXXXVIII, Edinburgh: [Ballantyne and Co. for] William Blackwood, […]; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 881, column 1:
      Then, what wretched writing?—"Poured upon the plain,"—"scatter o'er the fields,"—"whitens all the skies,"—"brighten all the fields,"—"flame the skies,"—and "laugh the fields," all huddled and hubbubbed together into one chaotic sentence.
      A figurative use.
    • 2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
      It becomes a grotto, hubbubbing with more noise than any class on a school visit could make, the air mobbed by breathless chatter about life and the transfer window.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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Used by New England colonists (17th–18th century) to imitate the sounds hub, hub, hub cried by the players:[1] see the 1634 quotation.

Noun

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hubbub (uncountable)

  1. (US, historical) Synonym of bowl game (“a Native American game of chance involving the throwing of colored nuts from a bowl, comparable to dice”).
    • 1634, William Wood, “Their Games and Sports of Activitie”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of the Indians, […]), pages 85–86:
      They have tvvo ſorts of games, one called Puim, the other Hubbub, not much unlike Cards and Dice, being no other than Lotterie. […] Hubbub is five ſmall Bones in a ſmall ſmooth Tray, the bones bee like a Die, but ſomething flatter, blacke on one ſide and vvhite on the other, vvhich they place on the ground, againſt vvhich violently thumping the platter, the bones mount changing colours vvith the vvindy vvhisking of their hands too and fro; vvhich action in that ſport they much uſe, ſmiting themſelves on the breaſt, and thighs, crying out, Hub, Hub, Hub; they may be heard play at this game a quarter of a mile off. The bones being all blacke or vvhite, make a double game; if three be of a colour and tvvo of another, then they affoard but a ſingle game; […]
Translations
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “hubbub, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “hubbub, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “hubbub, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025.
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