or cock-on-hoop, cock-in-a-hoop, adj. (colloquial).—Strutting; triumphant; high-spirited; ‘uppish.’ [Ray suggested that it refers to the practice of taking out the spigot (an old synonym for the penis, by the way) and laying it on the top of a barrel with a view to drinking the latter dry; a proceeding that would naturally induce a certain swagger in the actors. There seems, however, no doubt that the true derivative is the French coq à houppé. Houppé, in French, is a tuft, touffe (and toupet, is kindred). Littré says, terme de blason, tuft of silk or tassel hanging from a hat: ‘Elle sert de timbre au chapeau des cardinaux, etc. Houppêe is the foam on the top of a wave. Houppe is the tuft on a trencher cap: ‘Qui distingue,’ says Tarver, ‘le bonnet des nobles de celui des autres’ at the universities—hence tuft-hunter, coureur de houppes. Also, ‘Il trouve à se fourrer parmi les plus huppés’ = he contrives to vie with those at the very top of fashion. The Hoopoe (Lat. Upupa), is a crested bird. Hence coq à houppé is a crested cock, and by analogy one swaggering, triumphant, exulting; so ‘cock-a-hoop’ is ‘cock-a-top,’ ‘cock-a-crest,’ elated beyond reason—‘cocky, ‘as schoolboys say—‘cock of the walk,’ ‘cock at the top.’ In cock-fighting, the ‘cock-a-top’ is he that gets the vantage stroke. ‘Abattre l’orgueil des plus huppés’; to bring down the crest of the highest. COCK-A-HOOP is plainly the original expression, and COCK-ON-THE-HOOP a later form adopted when the original meaning had vanished.] English equivalents are ‘IN FULL FEATHER,’ and ‘A-COCK-HORSE’ (q.v.), while colloquial French has s’en pourlécher la face and s’émérillonner (to become cheerful through repeated potations).
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., Sc. 5. Am I the master here or you? Go to … You will set COCK-A-HOOP! you’ll be the man.
1633. JONSON, The Tale of a Tub, V., ii. John Clay agen! nay then—set COCK-A-HOOP: I have lost no daughter, nor no money, justice.
1707. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. XII., p. 20.
| Those cruel, sanctify’d Pretenders, | |
| Now rais’d by Fortune, COCK-A-HOOP. |
1853. Diogenes, II., 195. ‘Our Foreign News Summary.’
| All trie COCK-A-HOOP BEYS in the Sultan’s dominions | |
| Have taken to expressing their individual opinions. |
1885. D. C. MURRAY, Rainbow Gold, bk. IV., ch. vi. He’s a fine lad, a fine lad, but COCK-A-WHOOP, and over certain for his years.
