Have you ever walked into a room and wondered, “What’s with all the hubbub?”

OK, so perhaps not, but it’s probable that you’ve heard of this colorful word at some point. And instead of letting it go quietly by, why don’t we flag it down and politely ask about its provenance, shall we?

Referring generally to confusing scenes, or to chaotic meetings, it comes from, of all places, 16th century Ireland, where there were apparently enough of both sorts of situations to inspire the Gaelic interjection, “ub! ub! ubub!”

This shout, transliterated into English in a number of different spellings (including “hooboube,” “hubbuboo” and “whoo-bub”), expressed feelings of repugnance or derision and comes from the ancient Irish war-cry, “abu!” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

A bona fide “hubbub” involves the raising of the proverbial “hue and cry,” especially since one of its meanings can also refer to the noisy din of many voices speaking at once in a hubbubish environment (and yes, it can be used as an adjective).

Shakespeare can be fairly credited with an early use of the word in his Winter’s Tale, written in about 1611, in Act 4, Scene 4, with this line by Autolycus:

“So that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub against his daughter and the king's son and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.”

The "choughs" he was referring to, in case you were wondering, were a type of crow, and, either way, one could say he was raising a bit of a hubbub about that hubbub. 

If you have any word ideas or questions in the waning days of the Daily incarnation of my word column, I’d love to hear from you; please send me a note at features@dailyuw.com.