late 12c., "circular band, flattened ring," probably from an unrecorded Old English *hop, from Proto-Germanic *hōp (source also of Old Frisian hop "a hoop, band," Middle Dutch and Dutch hoep "hoop," Old Norse hop "a small bay"). The original meaning must have been "curve; ring," but the IE etymology is uncertain.
As a child's plaything by 1792. In basketball from 1893. As something someone jumps through (on horseback) as a circus trick, by 1793; figurative use of jump through hoops is by 1917. As "circular band serving to expand the skirt of a woman's dress" from 1540s. They have been in and out of style over the centuries. Hoop-petticoat (one stiffened or expanded by hoops of ratan, whalebone, etc,) is attested from 1711; hoop-skirt in the same sense is from 1856, figurative of old-fashioned ways by 1893, when there was a general alarm at their rumored return to fashion. The U.S. Southern hoop snake (1784) is fabled to take its tail in its mouth and roll along like a hoop. Related: Hoops.
mid-15c., from hoop (n.). The surname Hooper "maker of hoops, one who hoops casks or tubs" is attested from early 13c. Related: Hooped; hooping.
also hoop-la, 1877, hoop la, American English, earlier houp-la, exclamation accompanying quick movement (1870), of unknown origin, perhaps borrowed from French houp-là "upsy-daisy," also a cry to dogs, horses, etc. (see whoop).
traditional dance of Hawaii, 1825, from Hawaiian. As a verb from 1952. Hula hoop first recorded in fall of 1958, when it was a craze; so called from resemblance of motions of one using it to the dancers' hip circles.
"small wheel to support heavy weights," 1540s (implied in trundle bed "low bed on small wheels"), possibly from Middle English trendle "wheel, suspended hoop" (early 14c.), from Old English trendel "ring, disk" (see trend (v.)). Also probably in part from Old French trondeler "to roll down, fall down," which is of Germanic origin.
c. 1300, "figure of a circle, a plane figure whose periphery is everywhere equidistant from its center point," from Old French cercle "circle, ring (for the finger); hoop of a helmet or barrel" (12c.), from Latin circulus "circular figure; small ring, hoop; circular orbit" (also source of Italian cerchio), diminutive of circus "ring" (see circus).
Replaced Old English trendel and hring. Late Old English used circul, from Latin, but only in an astronomical sense. Also used of things felt to be analogous to a circle: The meaning "group of persons surrounding a center of interest" is from 1714 (it also was a secondary sense of Latin circulus); that of "coterie" is from 1640s (a sense also found in Latin circulus).
To come full circle is in Shakespeare. Sense in logic, "inconclusive argument in which unproved statements are used to prove each other" is from 1640s. Meaning "dark mark around or beneath the eyes" is from 1848.
late Old English hopa "confidence in the future," especially "God or Christ as a basis for hope," from hope (v.). From c. 1200 as "expectation of something desired;" also "trust, confidence; wishful desire;" late 14c. as "thing hoped for," also "grounds or basis for hope." Personified since c. 1300. Related: Hopes.
Compare Old Frisian and Middle Dutch hope, Danish haab, Dutch hoop, all from their respective verbs. For forlorn hope, see forlorn.
mid-12c., forloren "disgraced, depraved," past participle of obsolete forlesan "be deprived of, lose, abandon," from Old English forleosan "to lose, abandon, let go; destroy, ruin," from for- "completely" + leosan "to lose" (from Proto-Germanic *lausa-, from PIE root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart"). In the Mercian hymns, Latin perditionis is glossed by Old English forlorenisse. OED's examples of forlese end in 17c., but the past participle persisted. Sense of "forsaken, abandoned" is 1530s; that of "wretched, miserable" first recorded 1580s.
A common Germanic compound (cognates: Old Saxon farilosan, Old Frisian urliasa, Middle Dutch verliesen, Dutch verliezen, Old High German virliosan, German verlieren, Gothic fraliusan "to lose").
In English now often in forlorn hope (1570s), which is a partial translation of Dutch verloren hoop, in which hoop means "troop, band," literally "heap," and the sense of the whole phrase is of a suicide mission. The phrase more often than not is used in English as if it meant "a faint hope," and the misuse has colored the meaning of forlorn. Related: Forlornly; forlornness.
stiff material originally made partly or wholly of horsehair, 1830, from French crinoline "hair cloth" (19c.), from Italian crinolino, from crino "horsehair" (from Latin crinis "hair," from PIE root *sker- (2) "to turn, bend") + lino "flax, thread," from Latin linum (see linen). So called from the warp and woof fibers of the original mixture.
Petticoats made of it were worn by women under the skirt to support or distend it, and the meaning of the word subsequently was extended to the steel or whalebone framework used for making hoop-skirts (1848).
