(Noun). Or, probably originally, Hoorah Henry. Slang, pejorative term, comparable to Toff (UK) for an upper-middle class or upper class British male who has an air of superiority, is loud-mouthed and possibly boastful about his privileged upbringing.
A British English term but actually, first coined by an American. It was first used by author Damon Runyon in his short story ‘Tight Shoes’ in 1936. It was later adopted in the ’50s and ’60s to describe the boisterous upper class fans of certain jazz musicians. Later, the British tabloid newspapers adopted the phrase as a disparaging term to describe a British upper class Twit (UK), especially a politician as in ‘You can’t trust the Conservatives, they’re just a bunch of Hooray Henries!”
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