lulliloo

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Verb

lulliloo (third-person singular simple present lulliloos or lulliloo's, present participle lullilooing or lulliloo'ing, simple past and past participle lullilooed or lulliloo'd)

1. To utter a high-pitched oscillating joyous cry such as is traditionally used in Africa and the Middle East.
   • 1881, Bayard Taylor, The Lake Regions of Central Africa, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 147:

     Our entrance was attended with the usual ceremony, now familiar to the reader: the warmen danced, shot, and shouted, a rabble of adults, youths and boys crowded upon us, the fair sex lulliloo'd with vigor[.]

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XXII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 216:

     The singing-girls beat their tabrets and lulliloo'd with joy[.]