Hoop

Hoop (pronounced hoop)

(1) A circular band or ring of metal, wood, or other stiff material.

(2) Such a band for holding together the staves of a cask, tub, barrel etc.

(3) A large ring of iron, wood, plastic, etc., used as a plaything for a child to roll along the ground; the hula hoop was a later variation.

(4) A circular or ring-like object (apart, figure, component etc).

(5) In jewelry, the shank of a finger ring (the part of a finger ring through which the finger fits).

(6) In croquet, the wicket (the iron arches through which the ball is driven).

(7) In fashion, a circular band of stiff material used to expand and shape a woman's skirt (sometimes a hoop skirt or petticoat although technically, some don’t contain actual hoops).

(8) In basketball & netball, an informal term for the metal ring from which the net is suspended (the rim).  Also used to refer to the metal ring and net taken together (the basket) and (now less commonly) the game itself (always in the plural).

(9) In pottery (and the products of those which emulate the styles), a decorative band around a mug, cup bowl, plate etc.

(10) To bind or fasten with or as if with a hoop or hoops.

(11) To encircle; to surround.

(12) In circuses etc, a large ring through which performers or animals are trained to jump.

(13) In horse racing, slang for a jockey (Australia).

(14) A style of earring consisting of one or more circles of some substance (metal, plastic et al) and classically a single strand although some have several circles.  They’ve come to be associated with Gypsies (Roma; Romany; Travelers) but this may reflect depictions in popular culture).

(15) A variant spelling of whoop; a whoop, as in whooping cough; to utter a loud cry, or a sound imitative of the word, by way of call or pursuit; to shout (now rare).

(16) In cheese production (as cheese hoop), the cylinder in which the curd is pressed in making wheels of cheese.

(17) A circular band of metal, wood, or similar material used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.

(18) A quart pot, so called because originally it was bound with hoops, like a barrel (used also as a measure of the portion of the contents measured by the distance between the hoops).

(19) A now obsolete (pre imperial system) measure of capacity, apparently between 1-4 pecks.  (In US customary use, a peck was equal to 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints (8.80977 litres).  In the Imperial system, it was equal to 2 Imperial gallons or 8 Imperial quarts (9.09218 litres).)

(20) In embroidery, a circular frame used to support the thread.

(21) In sports (usually in the plural) a series of horizontal stripe on the jersey.

1125–1175: From the Middle English hope, hoope & hoop (circular band, flattened ring), from the late Old English hōp (mound, raised land; in combination, circular object), from the Proto-Germanic hōp (circular band, flattened ring) & hōpą (bend, bow, arch (which was related to the Saterland Frisian Houp (hoop), the Dutch hoep (hoop), the Old Church Slavonic кѫпъ (kǫpŭ) (hill, island), the Lithuanian kabẽ (hook) and the Old Norse hóp (bay, inlet)), from the primitive Indo-European kāb- (to bend).  Etymologists conclude the original meaning would have been “curve; ring” but the evolution is murky.  The verb was derived from the noun and emerged in the fifteenth century, apparently from the barrel-making business undertaken by coopers (who handled the timber) and hoopers (who fashioned the steel hoops).  Hoop is a noun & verb, hooper is a noun (the surname Hooper a proper noun), hooped is a verb & adjective hoopless, hooplike & unhooped are adjectives; the noun plural is hoops.

Lindsay Lohan wearing hooped earrings.

Although it’s clear hoops as playthings for children date back to antiquity, they weren’t again documented in Europe until the 1400s (where they were used in an early form of physiotherapy) and seem not to have been commercially available only after 1792.  The sport of basketball dates from 1891 and the term hoops (both for the physical components and the game itself) was certainly in use by 1893 although oral use may have preceded this.  The use in circuses (a large ring through which performers or animals are trained to jump) was noted in 1793 but there are journals from travelers in Spain, the Middle East and North Africa which confirm the same devices were being used to train military horses as early as the 1100s.  From this, developed the figurative form “jumping through hoops” which was used from circa 1915 to refer to the obstacles which must be overcome in order to proceed (one being forced to perform time-consuming, pointless tasks in order to gain a job, qualify for acceptance to something etc).

Structural engineering: How the hoop skirt is done.

The hoops (circular band serving to expand and shape the skirt of a woman's dress) used in fashion became popular in the 1540s but similar ideas in structural engineering has been used for thousands of years.  Until the twentieth century, the style never really went away but the size of the hoops certainly waxed and waned as tastes shifted.  The hoops were used for both skirts and petticoats and were fabricated variously from ratan, whalebone, bamboo and even steel and sometimes shapes beyond the purely circular were used, notably the bustle-back style which used the same technique of fabric over a framework.  The term hoop-petticoat appears to date from 1711 while the hoop-skirt is documented since 1856.  A hooptie (less commonly as hooptee or hoopty) is US slang for a dilapidated motor vehicle, dating from the 1920s but achieving popularity when used in hip-hop culture during the 1980s.

1958 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith touring limousine by Hooper.

The hoop snake, a native of the southern US & northern Mexico, was so named in 1784 in recognition of its ability to take its tail in its mouth and roll along like a hoop.  The phrase “cock-a-hoop” (delighted; very happy) was first noted in the sixteenth century and is of unknown origin but may be derived from either (1) the earlier “to set the cock a hoop” (prodigally to live) which implied (literally) “to put a cock on a hoop” (ie, a full measure of grain).  The surname Hooper (maker of hoops, one who hoops casks or tubs) dates from the thirteenth century and was the companion occupation of the cooper who made the barrels.  Hooper & Co (1805) was a UK coach-builder which in the twentieth century moved into the automobile business, catering for the top-end of the market including those supplied to the Royal Mews.  In the 1950s it was noted for its signature “knife-edge” style which, somewhat incongruously, applied one of the motifs of modernity to what was by then an antiquated design idea.  It was also associated with the extravagant Docker Daimlers but it was the end of an era because the move to unitary construction by the manufacturers meant the end for traditional coach-building and their production lines were closed in 1959 although business continued in various forms and in the 1980s, a few one-off Bentleys and Rolls-Royces were made.  Hoopla (also a hoop la) was a coining of US English (originally as houp-la) dating from the 1870s meaning “exclamation accompanying quick movement” and thought derived from the French phrase houp-là (“upsy-daisy” in the English sense), used in Louisiana.  It has come generally to mean “a great fuss”.

Official photograph issued by Celtic Football Club (The Hoops) showing team in traditional green-hooped livery (left) and Lindsay Lohan in a similar style (right) although her choice is presumed coincidental.

The Glasgow-based, Scottish football club Celtic is (along with Rangers) part of an effective duopoly which dominates the Scottish Premiership, the nation’s (FIFA says it’s a country) top-level competition.  The club was founded in 1887 and its first game was a “friendly” against Rangers.  In sport “friendly” is a technical term which means only that no trophy or competition points are at stake and (certainly in the crowd), there is never anything friendly about Celtic-Rangers contests.  As well as taking the majority of the cup competitions, since 1985-1986 either Celtic or Rangers have won each season’s top-flight trophy.  Reflecting their Irish-Catholic traditions, Celtic has always played in green and white and the distinctive hooped shirt was adopted in 1903, gaining them the nickname which endures to this day: The Hoops.

Lindsay Lohan recommends salt & vinegar (S&V) Hula Hoops.

Made from processed potatoes & corn (maize), Hula Hoops are fashioned in the short, hollow cylinders about one inch (25 mm) across.  They were first sold in the UK in 1973 and have been sold (under a variety of brands) in Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the English-speaking world (except North America).  Because the distribution model relied on sea transport  from centralized production facilities, the Hula Hoop business was greatly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and in some cases, supplies to some markets weren't wholly restored until 2022, a problem for HH addicts because apparently, there's nothing else quite like them.  The internet noted Ms Lohan's fondness for salt & vinegar (S&V) but the consensus seem to be the most popular flavor was BBQ Beef (Brown).

Hooters is a US cultural and culinary institution and one of its signature features is the beer being served by a hula-hooping waitress.  Hooters provides an instructional video, performed by Jordan from Georgia.

The staff at Hooters of course use a traditional hula-hooping technique, not only to respect the history but because they pour beer while hooping.  However, for those able to perform in "hands-free" mode, the hoop can be made to rotate in any arc which movements of body-parts permit.