A woman in Bozeman, Montana, wonders if any other families use the term “horning hour” as synonym for “happy hour.” The term’s a bit of a mystery, although it may have something to do with horning as in a shivaree, charivari, or other noisy celebration in the Old West. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Horning Hour”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lindy from Bozeman, Montana.
Hi, Lindy, welcome.
Hi, Lindy, what’s up?
Well, my dad used to have a phrase for meaning the cocktail hour, and he called it the horning hour.
And I always thought it was a code word because it was at our summer cabins,
And some of the folks were Mormons, and our end of the string of cabins was not.
So when I was younger, I thought it was a code word.
Was time for everyone to come over and have cocktails for those that drank. And then later on, I thought, well, maybe that wasn’t quite right.
And I thought maybe it came from my mother, who used to be a sailor in San Francisco.
And then she said, no, it was your dad’s.
Every time I’ve listened to your show, I thought, I wonder if they know where it came from.
So the last two of that generation are in their 90s.
And so we asked the other woman next door, and she thought it came from her dad, and it was from Vikings or Norsemen.
Okay.
And then she said, but it’s not those nasty little minds that think horny, as in toad.
Yeah.
She’s 90 and full of it.
Yeah, full of vinegar.
Like Vikings with helmets and horns sticking out.
You know, I’m glad that you’ve got that theory because there’s nothing out there.
Seriously, Lindy, we have searched what we have and looked in the books that we have, and I have nothing on Horning Hour.
Now, it doesn’t mean it’s not a phrase.
I’m just saying, like, it’s not been recorded in any place that I can find.
I don’t have it in my own citation files.
I’ve looked in the historical record where I can.
The theory about the Vikings sounds plausible.
Like, imagine, you know, an ox horn being used to pour mead into a flagon and rousing songs at the big oak table.
Well, Lindy, I have a question for you.
Yeah.
Grant mentioned the word rousing, and I’m wondering how rousing this horning hour was.
Well, the children were all around, so it wasn’t way too wild.
The dads would come up to the cabins on the weekend,
And so all the adults would get together on one porch or another and have their cocktails.
And like I say, the other end of the beach was the Mormons, and they didn’t drink.
So like I say, originally I thought it was a code word.
Okay, because the only thing I can think of is that there is a term horning that means a noisy celebration after a wedding.
Something like a shivery in the movie Oklahoma, that kind of thing.
There you go.
That’s not bad.
I mean, still, what confidence level would you give that?
Maybe 50.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Like a noisy party.
It looks like.
Yeah, well, they were definitely rowdier than the other end of the cabin.
Yeah, more rowdy than the Norman End.
I do like that.
That might work.
But it’s a dialect expression from where?
Well, it’s mostly the northeast of state New York and northern Pennsylvania.
I haven’t seen Horning Hour.
So, I mean, if they were making a joke about the notion of Horning being a noisy celebration, I haven’t seen.
It wouldn’t have to actually be noisy in order for the joke to work, right?
Yeah, or what I’m saying is I haven’t seen Horning Hour together.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, maybe it was an extension of that.
But I’m wondering if any of our listeners have ever talked about Horning Hour.
It’s like happy hour, right?
Yes, exactly.
It is happy hour.
Okay.
I guess it would be.
I hadn’t thought of that, but that’s probably exactly what it is.
Well, we’ll put the call out to the listeners,
And if anyone else has used the expression Horning Hour
And knows a little bit more about this, let us know, 877-929-9673,
Or email words@waywordradio.org, or tell us on Twitter @wayword.
Well, if we hear anything, we’ll sure let you know.
Thank you so much, and thanks for taking my call, and I really enjoy your show.
Thank you, Linda.
Thank you, Lindy.
Take care now.
Okay, bye-bye.
Could be a family word.
It could be a family word.
I like the Hornings as a celebration.
It could easily exist amongst her family, even if they’re not from the Northeast.
The Viking thing, I think we’ve seen that parodied enough in movies and television and cartoons.
Drinking out of skulls.
Yeah, yeah.
The skulling hour?
No.
Go rowing on the lake.
Well, we’d love to hear from you.
Or send us email.
That address is words@waywordradio.org.
And hit us up on Twitter at Wayword.
Lindy didn’t say when her parents and friends created the phrase “horning hour”, so I’d like to ask her two questions that might reveal a possible answer to its meaning. 1. Did this phrase originate during the late 1950s or ’60s? 2. Were the people involved avid football fans? If the answers to these questions are both “Yes”, I’d suggest that the expression she heard was not “horning hour” but “Hornung Hour”. If so it was named after Paul Hornung, a great running back for Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers, who was famous as a drinker and party-goer. Nicknamed “The Golden Boy” he won the Heisman Trophy and was elected to both the college and professional Hall of Fame. But he was also famous for booze and parties. A clever group in the sixties looking to name their happy hour couldn’t do better than to label it their “Hornung Hour”.