From the Naked City episode “Idylls of a Running Back” (September 26, 1962). Lieutenant Mike Parker speaks:
“This is a hurrah’s nest, and the sooner it’s dumped on the district attorney’s desk, the better I like it.”A what? Merriam-Webster says that a hurrah’s nest is “an untidy heap, mess.” Specifically, “a tangle of debris blocking a trail or stream.” Webster’s Second marks the expression as Colloq., U.S. The Oxford English Dictionary defines hurrah’s nest as “a confused or disorderly mass,” “a state of confusion or disorder.” The first citation, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1829): ”A queer-looking Dutchman, with a head like a ‘hurra’s nest.’” The OED marks the expression as U.S. None of these sources explains how this curious phrase came to be.
But I know how it came to be in Naked City: Ernest Kinoy, the episode’s writer, thought, Let me put in this odd phrase. And then someone with curiosity and dictionaries and a little time on his hands will look it up.
Done!
Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)
[“His hands”: because I am imagining a voice from 1962.]
comments: 3
I came across this explanation of where hurrah's nest came from: http://www.word-detective.com/2010/09/hurrahs-nest/ and this one: https://www.waywordradio.org/hurrahs-nest/
I find all the different spellings of "hurrah" just as interesting.
This is one that I have never heard of!
Kirsten
ps All the quotes from Proust are almost enough to pick him up again. Except the library has Robert Galbraith's newest (aka JK Rowling) ready for me. This one is 933 pages long and I have 3 weeks to read it with no renewals!
Thanks, Kirsten. I was going to put my guess in the post — a place where a loud, raucous group gathers — and then decided that if the dictionaries aren’t speculating, then I shouldn’t. But that’s my speculation. I think of the aftermath of a wild party.
I have to point out: there’s nothing in the OED about hurrah In itself meaning “a scene of great confusion or disorder.” I just f don’t know where that might come from.
I hope you make it through the 933 pages before the loan runs out. I’m thinking that Proust us going to take five or six months.
Dang phone. Without typos:
Thanks, Kirsten. I was going to put my guess in the post — a place where a loud, raucous group gathers — and then decided that if the dictionaries aren’t speculating, then I shouldn’t. But that’s my speculation. I think of the aftermath of a wild party.
I have to point out: there’s nothing in the OED about hurrah in itself meaning “a scene of great confusion or disorder.” I just don’t know where that might come from.
I hope you make it through the 933 pages before the loan runs out. I’m thinking that Proust is going to take five or six months.
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