"three times three"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

The soldiers “cheered her [Miss Florence Nightingale] to the echo with three times three.”

Would someone please explain the meaning of that sentence?

Thank you.

James

2

I suspect this common form of cheering (nowadays more simply referred to as ‘giving three cheers’)-

Leader: Hip, Hip,
Crowd: Hooray!
Leader: Hip, Hip,
Crowd: Hooray!
Leader: Hip, Hip,
Crowd: Hooray!

-so it may be that that’s three cheers (hip, hip, hooray) times three (repeated three times) and also includes the element of an ‘echo’.

or possibly (and more likely, as it is the ‘hooray’ element that is really considered to be the cheer - the ‘hip. hip’ part just neing a count-in to keep everyone to time), they did all the above three times over, making what is known as ‘three cheers’ three times (3x3) - 9 cheers in total.

As this was some time ago, is also possible that they did not use ‘hip, hip’ as a count in, but the leader called out a ‘hooray’ first, which the crowd echoed.
Leader: Hooray,
Crowd: Hooray!
Leader: Hooray,
Crowd: Hooray!
Leader: Hooray,
Crowd: Hooray!

Repeated.
Repeated once more.

Anyway, whichever way you look at it, the original means they gave three cheers three times, as an echo to one voice giving the ‘count in’.

3

Thank you very much for the excellent explanation.

Miss Nightingale certainly deserved their cheers!

James