Neat! Almost certainly not the real etymology, but neat.
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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This gave me Forwards from Grandma vibes, too, but it appears to be basically true – except that it means ‘I cry’ or ‘I shout’, not ‘I alarm’. And as a fun note, it’s been shortened over time from ‘to say boo to a goose’, which is fun.
boo (interj.)
early 15c., boh, "A combination of consonant and vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound" [OED, which compares Latin boare, Greek boaein"to cry aloud, roar, shout"]; as an expression of disapproval, 1884 (n.); hence, the verb meaning "shower (someone) with boos" (1885).
Not quite. When OED says ‘compare’ it’s just suggesting similarities, not a provable link.
The actual referenced OED page for boo leads to an older form (‘bo’), which then compares it to the sound of a cow or to a reduplication of the earlier exclamation ‘ho’.
The most likely explanation seems to be that it’s just a good combination of sounds, and the similar Latin & Greek forms were derived independently for the same reason.
From earlier (15c.) boh, coined to create a loud and startling sound. Compare Middle English bus! (“bang!”, interjection), Latin boō (“cry aloud, roar, shout”, verb), Ancient Greek βοάω (boáō, “shout”, verb).