Chapter Hurly-burly to Hyksos of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hurly-burly to Hyksos

Hurly-burly Uproar, tumult, especially of battle. A reduplication of hurly. Hurlu-berlu is the French equivalent, evidently connected with hurler, to howl or yell. (See Hullabaloo.)
    In the Garden of Eloquence (1577) the word is given as a specimen of onomatopoeia.

"When the hurly-burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won."
The Witches, in Macbeth i. 1.

Hurrah' the Hebrew . Our "Old Hundredth Psalm" begins with "Shout joyfully [hurrah] to Jehovah!" The word is also of not uncommon occurrence in other psalms. See Notes and Queries, October 16th, 1880. (Norwegian and Danish, hurra!) (See Huzza.)
    The Norman battle-cry was "Ha Rollo!" or "Ha Rou!" (French, huzzer, to shout aloud; Russian, hoera and hoezee.)

"The Saxon cry of `Out! Out, Holy Crosse!' rose high above the Norman sound of `Ha Rou! Ha Rou, Notre Dame!' " - Lord Lytton: Harold, book xii. chap. 8.

    Wace (Chronicle) tells us that Tur aie (Thor aid) was the battle cry of the Northmen.

Hurricane (3 syl.). A large private party or rout; so called from its hurry, bustle and noise. (See Drum.)

Hurry The Mahouts cheer on their elephants by repeating ur-ré, the Arabs their camels by shouting ar-ré, the French their hounds by shouts of hare, the Germans their horses by the word hurs, the herdsmen of Ireland their cattle by shouting hurrish. (Welsh, gyru, to drive; Armenian, haura, to hasten; Latin, curro, to run; etc.)
   Don't hurry, Hopkins. A satirical reproof to those who are not prompt in their payments. It is said that one Hopkins, of Kentucky, gave his creditor a promissory note on which was this memorandum, "The said Hopkins is not to be hurried in paying the above."

Hurry-skurry Another ricochet word with which our language abounds. It means a confused haste, or rather, haste without waiting for the due ordering of things; pell-mell.

Husband is the house farmer. Bonde is Norwegian for a "farmer," hence bondë-by (a village where farmers dwell); and hus means "house." Hus-band-man is the man-of-the-house farmer. The husband, therefore, is the master farmer, and the husband-man the servant or labourer. "Husbandry" is the occupation of a farmer or husband; and a bondman or bondslave has no connection with bond = fetters, or the verb to bind. It means simply a cultivator of the soil. (See Villein.) Old Tusser was in error when he derived the word from "house-band," as in the following distich: -

"The name of the husband, what is it to say?
Of wife and of house hold the band and the stay."
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.

Husband's Boat (The). The boat which leaves London on Saturday, and takes to Margate those fathers of families who live in that neighbourhood during the summer months.

"I shall never forget the evening when we went down to the jetty to see the Husbands' boat come in." - The Mistletoe Bough.

Husband's Tea Very weak tea.

Hush-money Money given to a person who knows a secret to keep him from mentioning it. A bribe for silence or "hushing" a matter up.

Hushai (2 syl.), in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is Hyde, Earl of Rochester. Hushai was David's friend, who counteracted the counsels of Achitophel, and caused the plot of Absalom to miscarry; so Rochester defeated the schemes of Shaftesbury, and brought to nought the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth.
   N.B. This was not John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, the wit.

Hussars Matthias Corvinus compelled every twenty families to provide him with one horse-soldier free of all charge. This was in 1458, and in confirmation of this story we are told that huss is an Hungarian word meaning "twenty," and that ar means "pay."
    When Matthias Corvinus succeeded to the crown of