Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
hurrah, hooraw, hooray, hurray (n., v., interj.)
Hurrah and hurray are the most usual spellings of the interjection, which is “a shout of joy or a cheer.” The verb means “to raise such a shout,” and the noun is the name of such a shout. The four spellings reflect some of the pronunciations: huh-RAH, huh-RAI, and hoo-RAI are the most frequently encountered, but the noun occasionally is pronounced to stress the first syllable (HOO-RAW), as the hooraw spelling suggests, and this word means “uproar, excitement, contretemps.”
