Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1700-1800
Origin: Perhaps from hello + Scottish English balloo a word used to make children keep quiet

hullabaloo

 noun
     
hul‧la‧ba‧loo [singular] informal
1 excited talk, newspaper stories etc, especially when something surprising or shocking is happening [= fuss]:
There was a huge hullabaloo when the book was first published.
2 a lot of noise, especially made by people shouting [= commotion]:
She looked up to see what all the hullabaloo was about.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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