Brouhaha (and the OED)

One of the pleasures of being a writer—or a reader for that matter—is an affection for words and their meanings. The finest and most well known English dictionary, far and away, is, of course, the Oxford English Dictionary, largely because of its inclusion of the historical evolution of each word's usage. The OED is published in several volumes, and in two volumes requiring a magnifying glass to read, but in this digital age, it is far more easily accessed online, with its own website. The OED, even on its website, is not inexpensive to use. An annual subscription to the online version now normally costs $295/year, but now, in celebration of its 90th year of publication, the OED is available for $90/year in the U.S. and £90 in the U.K. Most public libraries subscribe to the OED, and the library subscription can be used for free from one's home.

Obviously, there are other reputable dictionaries, of which one, Merriam-Webster, has a "Word of the Day" email newsletter, with definition, usage, pronunciation, and commentary about word origins. 

The occasion for these notes is that today's Word of the Day is one of my favorite words which I have too little occasion to use. The word is "brouhaha," meaning "a state of commotion or excitement: hubbub, uproar." 

Merriam-Webster continues its Word of the Day message: "Some etymologists think brouhaha is onomatopoeic in origin, but others believe it comes from the Classical Hebrew phrase barukh habba', meaning 'blessed be he who arrives' (Psalms 118:26). Although we borrowed brouhaha directly from French in the late 18th century, etymologists have connected the French derivation to that frequently recited Hebrew phrase, distorted to something like brouhaha by worshippers whose knowledge of Hebrew was limited. The word eventually came to be used in a sense similar to 'applause' and in the sense of 'a noisy confusion of sound'—the latter being the sense that was later extended in English to refer to any tumultuous and confused situation."

Examples of brouhaha (again, from Merriam-Webster):

There was much brouhaha in the tabloids over the young actor's sudden marriage to the woman who had been his high school sweetheart.

 

But where do you go, when the temperatures are soaring and you want to cool off but without all of the brouhaha that comes along with a trip to one of our more popular, crowded city beaches?