What does "ho" mean?
Ho: Halloo! attend! -- a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach. "What noise there, ho" Shak. "Ho! who's within" Shak.
Additional senses
- 2.Etym: [Perhaps corrupted fr. hold; but cf. F. hau stop! and E. whoa.] Stop! stand still! hold! -- a word now used by teamsters, but formerly to order the cessation of anything. [Written also whoa, and, formerly, hoo.] The duke . . . pulled out his sword and cried "Hoo!" Chaucer. An herald on a scaffold made an hoo. Chaucer.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00