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CHEERING

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 22 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHEERING , the uttering or making of sounds encouraging, stimulating or exciting to See also:

action, indicating approval or acclaiming or welcoming persons, announcements of events and the like. The word " cheer " meant originally See also:face, countenance, expression, and came through the O. Fr. into See also:Mid. Eng. in the 13th See also:century from the See also:Low See also:Lat. cara, See also:head; this is generally referred to the Gr. rcapa. Cara is used by the 6th-century poet Flavius Cresconius See also:Corippus, " Postquam venere verendam Caes l,ris ante caram " (In Laudem Justini Minoris). ", Cheer " was at first qualified with epithets, both of joy and gladness and of sorrow; compare " She thanked Dyomede for alle . . . his gode chere " (See also:Chaucer, Troylus) with " If they sing . . . 'tis with so dull a cheere " (See also:Shakespeare, Sonnets, xcvii.). An See also:early transference in meaning was to hospitality or entertainment, and hence to See also:food and drink, " See also:good cheer." The sense of a shout of encouragement or See also:applause is a See also:late use. See also:Defoe (See also:Captain Singleton) speaks of it as a sailor's word, and the meaning does not appear in See also:Johnson. Of the different words or rather sounds that are used in cheering, " hurrah," though now generally looked on as the typical See also:British See also:form of cheer, is found in various forms in See also:German, Scandinavian, See also:Russian (urd), See also:French (See also:hours).

It is probably onomatopoeic in origin; some connect it with such words as " See also:

hurry," " whirl "; the meaning would then be " haste," to encourage See also:speed or onset in See also:battle. The See also:English " hurrah " was preceded by " huzza," stated to be a sailor's word, and generally connected with " heeze," to hoist, probably being one of the cries that sailors use when hauling or hoisting. The German hock, seen in full in /See also:loch lebe der Kaiser, &c., the French vive, See also:Italian and See also:Spanish viva, evviva, are cries rather of See also:acclamation than encouragement. The See also:Japanese shout banzai became See also:familiar during the Russo-Japanese See also:War. In reports of See also:parliamentary and other debates the insertion of "cheers " at any point in a speech indicates that approval was shown by members of the See also:House by emphatic utterances of " hear hear." Cheering may be tumultuous, or it may be conducted rhythmically by prearrangement, as in the See also:case of the " See also:Hip-hip-hip " by way of introduction to a simultaneous " hurrah." Rhythmical cheering has been See also:developed to its greatest extent in See also:America in the See also:college yells, which may be regarded as a development of the See also:primitive war-cry; this See also:custom has no real analogue at English See also:schools and See also:universities, but the New See also:Zealand See also:football team in 1907 familiarized English crowds at their matches with a similar sort of war-cry adopted from the Maoris. In See also:American schools and colleges there is usually one cheer for the institution as a whole and others for the different classes. The See also:oldest and simplest are those of the New See also:England colleges. The See also:original yells of Harvard and Yale are identical in form, being composed of rah (See also:abbreviation of hurrah) nine times repeated, shouted in unison with the name of the university at the end. The Yale cheer is given faster than that of Harvard. Many institutions have several different yells, a favourite variation being the name of the college shouted nine times in a slow and prolonged manner. The best known of these variants is the Yale cheer, partly taken from the Frogs of See also:Aristophanes, which runs thus: " Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax, Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax, O-op, O-op, parabalou, Yale, Yale, Yale, Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, Yale ! Yale !

Yale!" The See also:

regular cheer of See also:Princeton is: " H'See also:ray, h'ray, h'ray, See also:tiger, Siss, See also:boom, ah; Princeton!" This is See also:expanded into the " triple cheer ": " H'ray, h'ray, h'ray, Tiger, tiger, tiger, Siss, siss, siss, Boom, boom, boom, Ah, ah, ah, Princeton, Princeton, Princeton ! " The " railroad cheer " is like the foregoing, but begun very slowly and broadly, and gradually accelerated to the end, which is enunciated as fast as possible. Many cheers are formed like that of See also:Toronto University: " Varsity, varsity, V-a-r-s-f-t-y (spelled) VARSIT-Y (spelled staccato) See also:Var-si-ty, Rah, rah, rah ! " Another variety of yell is illustrated by that of the School of See also:Practical See also:Science of Toronto University: " Who are we ? Can't you guess ? We are from the S.P.S. ! " The cheer of the See also:United States See also:Naval See also:Academy is an See also:imitation of a nautical syren. The See also:Amherst cheer is: " Amherst ! Amherst ! Amherst ! Rah ! Rah !

Amherst ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! Amherst!" Besides the cheers of individual institutions there are some See also:

common to all, generally used to compliment some successful See also:athlete or popular See also:professor. One of the oldest examples of these See also:personal cheers is: " Who was See also:George See also:Washington? First in war, First in See also:peace, First in the See also:hearts of his countrymen," followed by a stamping on the See also:floor in the same See also:rhythm.

College yells are used particularly at athletic contests. In any large college there are several leaders, chosen by the students, who stand in front and See also:

call for the different songs and cheers,directing with their arms in the See also:fashion of an orchestral conductor. This cheering and singing form one of the distinctive features of inter-collegiate and scholastic athletic contests in America.

End of Article: CHEERING

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