How did the phrase Hip Hip Hooray start?

Answer 1

The old story here can be taken for what it's worth, which isn't much. Hip, we're told, derives from the initials of the Latin words 'Hiersolyms est perdita,' 'Jerusalem is destroyed.' German knights, not a very bright bunch, were supposed to have known this and shouted 'hip, hip!' When they hunted Jews in the persecutions of the Middle Ages. 'Hurrah!' by the same strained imagining, is said to be a corruption of the Slavonic word for Paradise (hu-raj). Therefore, if you ever shout 'hip! hip! hurrah!' You are supposedly shouting: 'Jerusalem is destroyed (the infidels are destroyed) and we are on the road to Paradise!' There is not the slightest proof of any this, and the phrase, which doesn't date back earlier than the late 18th century, almost certainly comes to us from the exclamation 'hip, hip, hip!' earlier used in toasts and cheers, and 'huzza,' an imitative sound expressing joy and enthusiasm. From "The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).