hoopla

Meanings

1. A bustling to-do, excited speech or noise.
2. A carnival game in which the player attempts to throw hoops around pegs.

Etymology

Earlier houp-la, hoop la, first attested in c. 1877, probably from French houp-là, oup-là (“upsadaisy, upsy-daisy”), a cry to various animals close to humans like horses and dogs, of likely onomatopoeic origin (but see là). Compare interjections like whoop, ahoy, hoo.