Hooroo as a farewell has been in use in Australia since at least 1916. It comes from the term hooray which was recorded in the Bulletin way back in 1898. It has been used on Australian TV in the past as a sign off from big shows including those of Molly Meldrum. Read some more tidbits on this at our Australian Word Map entry for hooroo.
Similar and possibly an offshoot of this is the farewell, tooroo. This is thought to be either a combination of ta-ta and hooroo or a shortened version of toodle-oo. What unique Aussie way of saying farewell is most common in your family? We’d love to know.
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
