A loud noise or commotion; a big fuss or uproar about something, usually unnecessary or exaggerated.
Origin uncertain, possibly from a Scots word or from reduplication patterns in English. It emerged in the 18th century and carries onomatopoetic qualities suggesting noisy chaos, with the double syllables mimicking the sound of commotion.
Hullabaloo is one of English's best 'sound word' nouns—along with brouhaha, kerfuffle, ruckus, and fracas, all meaning fuss but sounding completely different; linguists call this semantic convergence where multiple unrelated words develop similar meanings, probably because they each just *sound* like chaos.
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