Comments on: Hubba-Hubba

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:01:35 +0000

hubba hubba is a Chinese wording toward the end of a conversation or an affirmation ”ok” or ”everything is fine/ok”, ”it’s good”. It is in near every other paragraph of speech. I only know this as my Chinese friends end up losing me once they start up pro’s between them. It’s all noises with two words I recognise, hubba hubba, and kimono. Such a technical sounding language where the tone is equally important as the word. i.e. ‘saya’ quietly is yes and loudly is possibly go away as in F off! apparently. Swearing without actually using a swear word – how inscrutable

By: Gary Weisgerber

Gary Weisgerber — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:27:59 +0000

The Firesign Theatre used the term as an anachronism in a 1969 album when an announcer introduces an elderly character by exclaiming, “Hubba hubba George, what a suit!” I recall thinking of it as a silly, out-of-date term when I was a little kid back in the late 50s. It reminds me of another, earlier expression: “Hot-cha!”

By: catherine depino

catherine depino — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:26:20 +0000

I found your analysis very interesting! I remember that my dad used to say this to my mother to express his admiration when she wore a beautiful outfit. They got married before the second world war.
Catherine DePino

By: Kabin

Kabin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:11:26 +0000

I worked for a hat maker in Seattle that told me it was invented by a doorman at a burlesque house near Pioneer Square in the thirties. The old boy was never wrong.

By: Bernard Schutz

Bernard Schutz — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:51:10 +0000

The current (May 2011) issue of the KLM inflight magazine Holland Herald records this odd figure of speech:

Vuhubya-hubya: the flapping of the pendulous breasts of a woman hurrying
(Tsonga, South Africa)
[http://holland-herald.com/2011/05/a-world-of-words/]

If this is an old expression, it might have got into African-American speech long before it was recorded. Then it would not be hard to understand how it could have been transmuted into a meaning that a woman was hot.

By: Judy Laub

Judy Laub — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:21:42 +0000

I remember the reply to hubba hubba was “ding ding”
Anybody else?

By: Monthly Gleanings: November 2009 | Everyone Read It!

Monthly Gleanings: November 2009 | Everyone Read It! — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:06:24 +0000

[...] (most words cited by Wedgwood and Braune are regional). Hubba-hubba. At one time, I devoted a special post to it and received several comments. Here I will quote the most recent letter from our [...]

By: Monthly Gleanings: November 2009 : OUPblog

Monthly Gleanings: November 2009 : OUPblog — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:55:55 +0000

By: NIck Green

NIck Green — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:50:39 +0000

Hubba is the universal word for casual hello for most of the plains indians of noth amarica ( esp. used by the Shoshoni who were known as the snake or the people of the woven grass huts . could it have been used bythe english with a raised eye brow ” hubba hubba ”
I dont know

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:01:46 +0000

I’m not sure I believe it, but I heard somewhere that hubba-hubba might actually come from Arabic somehow, since hubba-hubba is close to the word “Hubb حب” in Arabic, which means “love.” It makes sense because in Arabic, if you are selling something, you might call out that word repeated twice, and as the theory goes, this would he been a way for prostitutes to advertise their services to the foreigners in Egypt during the colonial era. It doesn’t make a lot of sense how this seemingly random Arabic word would make its way into English, but the meaning in English, especially the cat-call one, seems to be really close, as you can imagine some sailors calling this out to some Egyptian women in the street.

By: Geni Wixson

Geni Wixson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:34:52 +0000

When I told my husband about “hubba-hubba”, he said, “My grandfather was from Hubble, Michigan, so I know all about “hubba-hubba”!!

By: Robert Wachal

Robert Wachal — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:25:20 +0000

Anatoly, I have a comment for you that must be private. Please email me.

Bob

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:28:57 +0000

It was alive and well in the 1950′s….When my father-in-law commented on the back of a photo depicting his wife in a smashing outfit. She was dressed to the nines and ready to go to the club! She looked good enough for him to write — hubba hubba!!!

By: Justin T. Holl, Jr.

Justin T. Holl, Jr. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:42:46 +0000

I agree that hubba hubba is not, well at least was not, dead. But it is true that I only used it playing baseball.

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:59:26 +0000

It's not quite dead: my wife (born 1943, while her father was serving overseas) has been known to say it to me (born 1958) when I walk by in my tighty-whities. Of course, my house also has resonated to tokens of tinfoil, icebox, and Hold the wire! from time to time, more often from me than from her.