What does hoot mean? You might describe someone as a real hoot. But is the hoot in the phrase “not give a hoot” a different kind of hoot? Grant explains that in the positive case, hoot is a shortening of hootenanny, a informal party with folksy music. In the negative sense, however, to hoot at somebody means to disapprove of something. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Hootenanny”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, how are you doing?
Doing well. Who are you?
This is Debbie Hatherel. I’m from Alliance, Ohio.
All right.
Alliance, Ohio. Hi, welcome to the program.
Where is Alliance?
Alliance is in the northeast sector of Ohio.
Okay.
It’s like in between, halfway in between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Debbie, how can we help you?
Well, I’ve been in Alliance since 1979, but I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, which is also in the northeast section of Ohio, but it’s 45 minutes from where I am now.
And I also lived in Cincinnati for college and in Bowling Green for graduate school.
So as soon as I moved to Alliance, Ohio, I started hearing the word hoot.
So what a hoot.
Oh, I don’t give a hoot, or she’s a hoot, or that’s a hoot.
And I was like, why would I hear it in Alliance, but never anywhere else in Ohio?
So where did it come from? You know what? Where did it start and why? How did it get to Alliance?
Why here? And did I just not know about it? How interesting! Or maybe you weren’t a hoot and nobody called you one. That could be, that could easily be.
Oh, I don’t believe that. No, you sound like a lot of fun.
You know, it, it, it’s a good place to live, but but I have a lot of questions about that one. There are a couple of things at play here.
Let’s break them down simply. I don’t know of any regional component to hoot. I don’t know that it’s more common in any form in any part of the country when compared to any other part.
I was thinking it was more southern. I’ve made people laugh when I’ve gone to places in the north and used the term hoot.
That’s interesting. Oh, we had a hoot. It’s a hoot. It’s possible.
But that would dovetail perfectly with one of the hoots that you’re talking about is.
Probably a shortening of hootenanny.
So when you say she’s a hoot, you mean she’s kind of like a party.
She’s a lot of fun.
And hoot is a short for hootenanny, which is a kind of party, is pretty standard American English.
And hootenanny can either mean a party or can mean like an impromptu folk, you know, like hoedown, right?
A bunch of people getting together with a fiddle and a tub and just start playing and people start dancing.
You just have like a little party there on the spot, right?
That’s a hootenanny.
The other kind of hoot, I don’t give a hoot.
I think that is the hoot of scorn and derision.
And it comes from a different place altogether in the language.
Hooting at somebody.
Yeah, you hoot as a sign of negativity or a sign of disapproval or dislike.
You know, it’s a hoot of, it’s not a happy hoot.
It’s not a positive hoot, right?
So I don’t give a hoot means I don’t even care enough about what you’re talking about to even express my negative feelings about it.
Okay.
So, and there’s a lot of caveating and hedging here and all this, but I’m pretty firm about both of those, okay?
Debbie, thank you so much for giving us a ring about hoot.
The call was a hoot.
Well, great.
Thank you very much, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with you.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
It was an awful lot of fun.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Notice how she didn’t say we were a hoot.
She said it was an awful lot of fun.
That’s okay.
There were no hoots of derision, though.
That’s true, so I won’t take it personally.
If you’ve got a question about language, call us 877-929-9673 and send those regional expressions to words@waywordradio.org.
