The current colloquial use of the word whoop among the great fading race of the Caucasian kind is limited to such terms as, “whoop it up, and make whoopee,” bastardized uses of the original term. The original term is a celebration of punishment accompanied by the boastful waxing of the punisher. No word more completely preserves the old English dedication to combining violence and boasting, than the term whoop. Whether it is used by the President of the United States at a national prayer breakfast in extolling the persistent African American virtue of beating one’s children, or used by a young mother describing, “how she whooped that backtalking ass,” or in a gangster rapper’s combination of boasting and violent imagery, no single word in the English Language better represents the dedication of American People of Color in preserving their master’s legacy.

Origin of whoop

1350-1400; Middle English whopen, Old English hwōpan to threaten; cognate with Gothic hwopan to boast

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2016.