hurrah bush n Also hoorah bush, hooraw ~
1 Any of several dense shrubs of swampy areas; now usu a staggerbush n (here: Lyonia lucida), but also others such as a fetterbush n 2 (here: Eubotrys racemosa) and titi n 1b; hence n hurrah blossom. S Atl, esp GA
1853 Simms Sword & Distaff 89 SC, The wild, matted, tangled, tough and altogether indescribable shrub, which the woodman described as the “Hurrah-bush,” and for which we have no better name, constitutes, in poor soil, and on the edges of swamps and drowned lands, one of the most formidable and impenetrable of forest walls. 1915 Brooklyn Museum Qrly. 2.230 Okefenokee GA, We mistook our course for a time, having overlooked the narrow opening in the ‘hurrah bushes.’ [Footnote:] The natives give this curious name to two shrubs of the swamp, Leucothoë racemosa [=Eubotrys racemosa] and Pieris nitida [=Lyonia lucida]. 1934 Atlanta Constitution (GA) 9 Dec sec C 3/1 Okefenokee GA,Two species were outstanding in their beauty at this season. One is the famous Titi, a species of Cyrilla, which is known in the swamp as the “hurrah bush.” These shrubs were laden with long brown streamers arranged in a circular fashion, like the spokes of a wheel, and bearing the dry seeds of the shrub. 1938 FWP U.S. One 252 FL, Here mistletoe is found clinging to the black gum, and palmettos grow in profusion. Prickly ash, elbow, and hurrah bushes are common. 1940 (1941) Bell Swamp Water 33 Okefenokee GA, On the right side of the lake was a jungle wall of many colors . . scarlet ivy trumpets and pink hurrah blossoms. 1946 Hopkins 45 Yrs. Okefenokee 69, I have a faculty to forget such things as . . struggles through masses of “hurrah” bush (Pieris Nitida) that seemed all to grow toward us and tore our clothes. 1949 Emory Univ. Qrly. 5.114 Okefenokee GA, Extending in graceful curves almost to the water’s edge are the branches of the “Hoorah Bush” (Leucothoë racemosa), “He-Huckleberry” (Vaccinum corymbosum), and Ti-Ti (Cyrilla racemiflora). 1949 Goldsboro News–Argus (NC) 2 June 10/6, Travelers in the vicinity of Lake Waccamaw may be fascinated to hear natives talk about the hurrah bushes in Green Swamp, but they will look in vain for this botanical specimen. When a lumberman is working in the marsh, and if he encounters a dense growth of gallberries, myrtle, bays, laurel, bamboo, huckleberry, they loose their individualism and automatically all become hurrah bushes. 1968 DARE Tape GA30, [Inf:] We got plenty of that [ˈhu:ˌrɔ:] in here [=Okefenokee Swamp]. [FW:] What is it? [Inf:] It’s a bush that grows here in the swamp. It grows thick in some places—you have to cut your way through it. The real name for it, I think, is a fetterbush, but we call it the hurrah bush. Won’t no insect suck the bloom on it. It has a beautiful bloom, but no kind of insect, nothing don’t light on that bloom. . . A gentleman here from the government come down here to tag these bushes. . . When he come to that he put titi on it, when he come to that hurrah bush. 1968 DARE (Qu. T5, . . Kinds of evergreens, other than pine) Inf GA25, Hurrah [ˈhuˌrɔ] bush—same as fetterbush. 2010 Greenville News (SC) 27 Jan sec A 8/3 Okefenokee GA, Hurrah bush grows in conjunction with greenbrier (smilax)) which is a pervasive thorny vine also found here in the Upland.
2 A bush or bushy area that provides switches and where punishment is carried out; see quots. Sth, S Midl
1892 Kate Field’s Washington 5.117/2 NC [Black], ‘Better min’ how yer eben think dat too loud, Unc’ Tobe,’ I say, ‘yer breed’n’ whuppin’ now. Dat’s de straight paf to de hooraw-bush.’ 1894 Daily Picayune (New Orleans LA) 26 Aug 7/5 swMS, seLA, If the unlucky young hunter fails to bring in a squirrel for each missing bullet he is taken out into the pine thickets nearby, “the hurrah bush,” as they call it, and is treated to a severe thrashing by his father. a1937 in 2026 DARE File—Internet seMS (as of 1860s), When Father came, we went out the hurrah bush and had an interview. When that was over, I was willing for anyone to dress me and to go to church too. 1973 Batesville Guard (AR) 18 Sept 10/3, [Letter:] When we were young, a certain bush grew in the corner of our back yard. Actually, it was a rose of sharon or athea [sic] shrub, but we knew it as the “hurrah bush.” I think we borrowed this name from a neighbor. This is where Mama got those little keen switches that sting so much. Sometimes when the offense wasn’t so great, we woudl [sic] be taken out [to] the “hurrah bush” and talked to. 1998 Jonesboro Sun (AR) 22 Nov sec A 8/1, [Letter:] In my younger days, we didn’t have serious problems in high school or college. If a student in grade or high school created a problem the teacher took that student to the hurrah bush and bragged on him. One or two trips usually corrected the problem. 2006 Ozark Co. Times (Gainesville MO) 19 July sec A 12/6, This was before Mom finally walked in and discovered why her hens had stopped laying. The whole experiment came to an abrupt end with the usual application of a limb, torn, not cut, from the ever-present hooraw bush. 2019 in 2026 DARE File—Internet cwNC, Clyde and Blanche lived in Morganton, Burke County, NC when I was a little kid. . . I remember Uncle Clyde’s dire warnings to me when he felt I was misbehaving: “I’ll take you to the hooraw bush!” I didn’t know what a hooraw was, and I still don’t. All I knew back then was that I didn’t want to go to the bush to find out!