Talk:Hue and cry

Contemporary usage
I find the section about it being a media-specific usage a bit dubious. In Canadian usage at least, the phrase merely means "raise an alarm, make a fuss," in other words the simplest sort of analagous use. Someone complaining to a group of people noisily and what have you. The specific case of a -media- hue and cry doesn't seem to be an unusually important use of the phrase, and the part about opposing sides inevitably forming around an issue seems downright unrelated to the phrase. 142.167.160.206 (talk) 07:15, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree. Removed at least the strangest bit of it; left the rest for the moment. :-) User:Glenn Willen (Talk) 02:47, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Removed it entirely. Sounds biased. Phearson (talk) 00:57, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

The Latin etymology here is incorrect
The origin is late Middle English, from the Anglo-Norman French legal phrase hu e cri, literally ‘outcry and cry', from Old French hu ‘outcry’ (from huer 'to shout'). -- Evertype·✆ 20:09, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd hate to see the page removed completely, but it would be good to find a few reasonably definitive sources to support either etymology. I have found both etymologies,, but also. "Hue and Cry" emerging (if the legal reference is correct) at the latter end of the dominance of Anglo-Norman in the noble class in England. Unfortunately, the etymological resources on the web are quite limited and poorly cited. One would need to cite a well-documented printed source on this.

Also, "AF" should be wikilinked to "Anglo-French" General Ludd (talk) 19:02, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

As I understood it: Hue and cry is not a legal redundancy of the same couplet. In England "hue" meant to make a racket like banging on pots; "cry" means to use your voice. --ItsACityOfApes (talk) 01:43, 16 January 2023 (UTC)


 * If you have a reliable source that says that, it could go in. As it is, I see nothing much to support it. The OED defines "hue" as "Outcry, shouting, clamour, esp. that raised by a multitude in war or the chase. Obsolete except in 'hue and cry' n."; and gives the etymology as "Old French hu, hui, huy, heu, outcry, noise, war cry, hunting-cry, noun of action to huer to hoot, cry, shout". It also says "There is some ground to think that hue as distinct from cry originally meant inarticulate sound, including that of a horn or trumpet as well as of the voice", citing Blackstone's Commentaries (1769), which defines hue and cry as "the old common law process of pursuing, with horn and with voice, all felons". Again, that could go in. GrindtXX (talk) 13:03, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

History
We need a citation of the original Statute of Winchester that discusses this issue: Google Books has a copy of the text here: http://books.google.com/books?id=cTILAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA76&ots=1acfFeJFAJ&dq=original%20text%20of%20Statute%20of%20Winchester%201285&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=false

General Ludd (talk) 19:32, 5 November 2011 (UTC)