hoolie

English

WOTD – 30 July 2025

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From hool(igan) +‎ -ie (diminutive suffix).

Noun

hoolie (plural hoolies)

  1. (slang) Short for hooligan (“a young person who causes trouble or violence, typically as a member of a gang or other group”).
    Synonyms: (slang) hool; see also Thesaurus:troublemaker
    • 1995, Peter H. Merkl, “Are the Old Nazis Coming Back?”, in Peter H. Merkl, editor, The Federal Republic of Germany at Forty-five: Union without Unity, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →ISBN, part VI (Conclusion), pages 456–457:
      Hooligans or hoolies are in it for the pure lust of violence and defence of turf and not really politics, although the subculture tends towards a right wing syndrome of working-class machismo and hostility to foreigners and to the better-off, better-dressed, and better-educated. Hoolies also tend towards public inebriation and, sometimes agitated by a small minority screaming 'Sieg Heil' and 'Germany for the Germans', have engaged in massed rampages through towns, attacking shops, police, and whatever target seemed convenient.
    • 2004, Geoff Harvey, Rivals: The Off-Beat Guide to the 92 League Clubs, Novato, Calif.: Aesculus Press, →ISBN:
      In the last published figures for Level Two, The Posh clocked up enough arrests to place them in the top five for hoolie problems for the division, putting them in the same dubious bracket as Stoke and Cardiff.
    • 2010, P[eter] R. Prendergast, chapter 3, in Dancing in the Dark, Dublin: The O’Brien Press, →ISBN, page 27:
      Offer ten seconds of your morning to make sure a new kid is nerded up nicely and what does he do only try to make himself look cool again! Only nobody is fooled. Not the students and not the teachers and certainly not the hoolies, 'hoolie' being short for ‘hooligan’, Richie Robinson at the helm.
Translations

Etymology 2

A variant of hooley; the further etymology of sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown.[1] Sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following:[2]

  • borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse ýlun (“howling, wailing”), from ýla (“to howl”) (ultimately onomatopoeic) + -un (suffix forming nouns).[3]
  • from sense 1.
  • From “tulaidh” in Scottish Gaelic, often a prefix, indicating extremity, starkness, things taken to an ultimate extent, an absolute degree, which, lenited as “thulaidh” would be pronounced “hoolie”.

Noun

hoolie (plural hoolies)

  2. (Ireland) Alternative spelling of hooley (“a noisy celebration or party”).
    • 2010, Andrew Greig, At the Loch of the Green Corrie, London: Quercus Editions, published 2011, →ISBN, page 189:
      The celebratory ceilidh at the Culag Hotel in Lochinver is still talked about. 'Oh, it was a fine evening,' one discreet woman said to me. 'A right damn wild hoolie!' a well-oiled friend enthused.
    • 2015, Kevin Maher, Last Night on Earth, London: Little, Brown, →ISBN, book 2, page 125:
      Indeed, our Recording Date was only yesterday and, thanks to a myriad of ongoing so-called technical 'snafus' (more media lingo – you'll get used to it!), we didn't leave the studio (get me, eh?!) until one in the morning, after which our presenters, Jiz and Liz, were in a right fouler, so we all piled back to Jane's gaff for champagne on tap and a wild sort of hoolie that had cocaine and everything, […]
  4. (Scotland) Alternative spelling of hooley (“a strong wind”).
    • 2012, Rosalind James, Bertie Rides Again, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 33:
      Bertie held mum's hand tightly as the wind was by now blowing a hoolie and Bertie did not feel very safe as he felt that he was close to being blown off his paws on more than one occasion.
    • 2012, Andy Lear, “The Social Aspect of Yachting”, in The Joys of Yachting, Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 17:
      I am arriving at the view that we have probably all been battered and bruised by being flung about the cabin as the boat heels over on its ear. We have all felt queasy (at best) when the wind and tide are battling it out in a hoolie and got cold, wet and miserable.
    • 2014, Mike Smith, “Warmer Climes—Wives—Guns—Brunhilde”, in Ships ’n Boats ’n Tales Afloat, Bridlington, Yorkshire: Lodge Books, →ISBN, page 66:
      The weather was fine when we first went in but unfortunately it started blowing a ‘hoolie’ in the evening.

References

  1. ^ “hooley, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “hoolie, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “hoolie, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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