hulan.

1898 J. R. Musick Hawaii vi. 79 Kalakaua's hula girls sometimes danced nude but the usual costume is a skirt made of grass, coming to the knees.]

1825 W. Ellis Jrnl. Tour Hawaii 59 At 4 p.m. the musicians from Kau again collected on the beach, and the dancers commenced a hura.

c1835 Lowell Smith in M. D. Frear Lowell & Abigail (1934) 102 [The public disturbance of] perpetual hulas, drumming and dancing accompanied by howling and intonations.

1851 F. A. Buck Yankee Trader in Gold Rush (1930) 81 They also take advantage of this to have a grand Hoolah Hoolah, or native dance.

1853 Putnam's Monthly Mag. II. 21/1 And now the floor was cleared, and preparation made for the great feature of the evening, viz., the Hula-hula.

1866 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 70 The girls danced the lascivious hula-hula—a dance that is said to exhibit the very perfection of educated motion.

1866 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 170 The flower and evergreen trumpery worn by the hula girls.

1868 Daily Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada) 29 Aug. 3/1 We have borne ourselves with calm fortitude at a Sandwich Island hula-hula.

1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xvii. 259 I was entertained to a sea-bathe, indiscriminate cocktails, a dinner, a hula-hula.

1899 W. C. Morrow Bohemian Paris 96 The hula-hula of the Hawaiian women lacks the grace, dash and abandon of the Turkish dance.

1919 F. O'Brien White Shadows South Seas 4 Kelly began ‘Tome! Tome!’ a Hawaian hula.

1927 E. W. Springs Nocturne Militaire viii. 258 They vibrated like a hula dancer's empennage.

1928 L. North Parasites 14 It appeared that you could buy anything from a home to a Hula-skirt on time-payment.

1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom i. iii. 49 A dusky maiden in hula-hula skirt, brassiere, and little else.

1954 Ellery Queen's Myst. Mag. Oct. 30/1 Her hula was very good.

1956 ‘N. Shute’ Beyond Black Stump viii. 236 With straw hula skirts..for sale in one corner among the picture postcards.

1958 Economist 11 Oct. 144/2 In a manner reminiscent of a primitive tribal ritual, the Hula Hoop..can be made to spin round the torso, or arm or leg or neck, by a broad swaying motion resembling the hip swinging of a Hawaiian hula dancer.

1958 Observer 9 Nov. 10/4 Hula-hooping children.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Nov. p. xxix/3 Hoops, also of ancient origin, had virtually disappeared from shops and streets, until the sudden recent craze for ‘hula’ hoops brought them out in a new form.

1958 Times 19 Dec. 12/5 If she had been a little younger he would have asked her if she had been hula-hooping the previous day.

1959 Times 3 Jan. 10/4 As training they are advocating two hours of ‘hula-hooping’ every morning.

1969 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 1 July TM16/2 Wham-O Mfg. Co., San Gabriel, Calif... Junior Hula Hoop... For plastic toy hoops.

1970 Which? Sept. 288/2 Remember hula-hoops and dislocated hips?

1973 Daily Tel. 6 Apr. (Colour Suppl.) 27/2 Few ‘craze’ toys have as long a life as the yo-yo: the hula-hoop and the late, unlamented ‘clacker-balls’ are examples which had success but were soon forgotten.