hootenanny
Americannoun
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a social gathering or informal concert featuring folk singing and, sometimes, dancing.
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an informal session at which folk singers and instrumentalists perform for their own enjoyment.
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Older Use. thingamajig.
noun
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an informal performance by folk singers
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something the name of which is unspecified or forgotten
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hootenanny
First recorded in 1910–15; origin uncertain
Explanation
A hootenanny is a lively folk music party or performance. If you're invited to a hootenanny, bring your fiddle or come prepared to sing along! When hootenanny first appeared in American English, it was an informal word for "gadget," a generic placeholder like thingamajig or doodad. It came to mean "impromptu party with music" in some rural regions and was adopted in the 1940s for gatherings held by folk musicians including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Hootenannies reached the height of popularity in the 1960s, but you can throw one today by getting together with friends to play and sing music!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”
From Washington Times • May 26, 2023
Even if you don’t give a hootenanny about folk music, you’ve probably heard Williams play.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2023
Within minutes, the young crew turned the moment into a full-blown hootenanny.
From Washington Post • Feb. 14, 2019
Before passing the audition to join NBC-TV’s music-centric sitcom “The Monkees,” which premiered in 1966, Nesmith had served as one of the hosts of the Troubadour’s Monday hootenanny shows.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 8, 2017
It seem like every night she and him was putting on a regular hootenanny.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
