Dictionary

boo-hooray en · ADJ

Etymology

A reference to the interjections boo and hooray which provide no information beyond the emotional reaction of the speaker.

Meanings

1. Having no meaning beyond the emotional reaction of the speaker; emotivist.
   • Old fashioned 'boo-hooray' forms of expressivism tell us nothing about utterances in which normative predicates are used in unasserted contexts, such as 'If lying is wrong then getting little brother to lie is wrong'. 2007, Russ Shafer-Landau, Oxford Studies in Metaethics - Volume 2, page 62:
   • It need not be a non-operational, merely 'boo-hooray' expression. 1978, Tony Becher, Stuart Maclure, Accountability in Education, page 76:
   • For rather than being 'thinly' emotive in the simplistic 'stimulus-respopnse' sense that would complement the 'thinly' emotive or 'boo-hooray' interpretation of the original ET which its critics based their criticisms upon, this theory... 2013, C. Wilks, Emotion, Truth and Meaning: In Defense of Ayer and Stevenson:
   • It hardly needs to be said that the results of this method are frustratingly dissatisfying, for the words tend to occur in speech and writing as mere boo-hooray words. 1980, Trevor Pateman, Language, truth and politics, page 106:
   • When I first came to the House of Commons I did not understand the legal use of the term " reasonable," which seemed to me a value judgment and to fall into the " boo-hooray " school. 1968, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Official Report of the Standing Committees:

Forms