hip hip hooray

Etymology
Recorded as far back as 1803. The word hip was in use then as a meaningless syllable to get someone's attention. Hooray (or hurrah) goes back to 1686, and also had no specific meaning, used instead to get a person's attention.

A folk etymology for this interjection suggests it comes from the anti-Semitic 1819 German, however many examples of "Hip Hip" exist in English prior to 1819, for example:

Interjection

 * 1) An exclamation of congratulations or celebration, especially in response to a call for "three cheers for" the person. Often the person calling for the cheers will yell "Hip! Hip!", the crowd replying "Hooray!"

Translations

 * Arabic: مَرْحَى!
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 万岁！万岁！万万岁！
 * Czech: hip, hip, hurá
 * Dutch: hieperdepiep hoera, hiep hiep hoera
 * French: hip hip hip hourra
 * German:
 * Italian: hip hip hip urrà, hip hip hip hurrà
 * Norwegian: hipp hipp hurra
 * Polish: hip, hip, hurra
 * Portuguese: hip hip hurra
 * Russian: гип-ги́п ура́,
 * Spanish: hip hip hurra
 * Swedish: hipp hipp hurra