pillaloo

English

Etymology

Of Irish origin; originally began as a hunting cry.

Noun

pillaloo (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A chorus of sorrow or distress
   • 1903, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Two Sides of the Face:

     So you may fancy the pillaloo that went up when the Overseers posted their new assessment on the church door and ‘twas found they’d ruled out no less than sixty voters known, or suspected to be, in Dr. Macann’s interest.

   • 1904, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “Frenchman's Creek: A Reported Tale,”, in Shakespeare's Christmas; And Other Stories:

     “Pitch a lady’s luggage into the road, would you?” struck in Jim the Guard, making himself heard above the pillaloo.

   • 2003, Robert Fitzroy Foster, W.B. Yeats: The arch-poet, 1915-1939, Oxford University Press, page 354:

     However in the same breath he talks of writing a poem on the herons at Algeciras “in a few years time”... What a pillaloo!

Interjection

pillaloo

1. (obsolete) A cry of sorrow or distress
   • 1837 Benson Hill, "the Irish Howl," Gentleman's magazine, Volume 1, Chas. Alexander, p183

     Oh, pillaloo! why should ye go, my boy, and lave all the good atin and drinkin?

   • 1839, Matthew Henry Barker, Hamilton King; or, The smuggler and the dwarf, by the Old Sailor,, page 196:

     “Och, but its kilt and smashed intirely they are,” returned Larry, as he stumbled over the shattered remains of a corpse; “och hone – och hone – pillaloo, pillaloo!”

   • 1857 Henry Murray, Lands of the Slave and the Free

     The dialogue was brought to a sudden stop by the frantic yell of the juvenile pledge of their affections, whose years had not yet reached two figures; a compact little iron-bound box had fallen on his toe, and the poor little urchin’s pilliloo, pilliloo, was pitiful.

   • 1888 Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Astonishing History of Troy Town, p107

     An’ the wust was, that what wi’ the rumpus an’ her singin’ out “Pillaloo!” an’ how the devil was amongst mun, havin’ great wrath, the Lawyer’s sarmon about a “wecked an’ ’dulterous generation seekin’ arter a sign” was clean sp’iled.

Anagrams

• Paolillo