Meaning

Hooray Henry

The meaning of the phrase

A loud-mouthed but ineffectual upper class fool.

Hooray Henry

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Hooray Henry’?

Was Henry British? No, American.

This sounds very much like a phrase of British origin - possibly from the pen of P. G. Wodehouse. In fact it’s an American phrase, coined by Damon Runyon. In a piece for a 1936 edition of Collier’s Weekly, Runyon wrote:

“He is without doubt strictly a Hoorah Henry, and he is generally figured as nothing but a lob as far as ever doing anything useful in this world is concerned.”

See other phrases that were coined in the USA.

Historical trend

“Hooray Henry” in printed material over time

Source: Google Books Ngrams (1960–2020).

1960198020002020
  • Hooray Henry

Sources

  1. Collier's Weekly, 1936 · Damon Runyon's coinage of the phrase