toot

toot¹ peep, stick out

Etymology

The word for peeping is inherited from Middle English tōten, also tote,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English tōtian (“to stick out, peep out”),^[3][5][6][2] a verb recorded only once in Old English.^[3] Old English also had tȳtan (“to peep out, become visible”), and Middle English touten, now tout; the OED sees in them two synonymous stems whose relation is obscure.^[3][5] It lists apparently connected words that point to an original sense of something sticking out, such as Dutch tuit (“spout, snout”), Middle Dutch tūte (“nipple, teat”), Middle Low German tūte (“horn, funnel”) and Old Norse tota (“teat”).^[3] Johnson did not know its source and guessed at an Old English verb meaning to know or examine.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stick out so as to be seen: in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care, of oxen covered all over except for their heads, which totodun ut.^[3] The 1989 edition of the OED dates it about 897.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb came to mean to peep, peer or look out, first in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225),^[3][2] and in Gower (1390) to look inquisitively, to pry.^[3][9] A transitive use, to look at or behold, lasted from about 1200 to 1394.^[3] From the verb came the noun toot, an isolated hill used as a lookout, recorded before 1387 in Trevisa and chiefly in south-western England,^[3] also as toot-hill (the Promptorium glosses tote-hylle as Latin specula);^[3][4] in 1770 T. Gray used it of a lookout tower.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to pry or peep slyly, still used in the provinces but otherwise obsolete.^[7] In the 19th century the English Dialect Dictionary recorded it, from Scotland to Somerset, for peeping and prying about; in Northamptonshire a baby that began to notice things was said to “toot about nicely”.^[10] In modern dialect it is also said of a plant beginning to show above ground,^[3] and a toot is a peep or glance.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 897 – to stick out, peep out so as to be seen.^[8][3]
• c. 1200 – to look at, behold (obsolete after 1394).^[3]
• c. 1225 – to peep, peer, look out.^[3][2]
• before 1387 – noun, an isolated hill used as a lookout.^[3]
• 1390 – to look inquisitively, to pry.^[3]
• 1770 – a lookout tower (obsolete by 1785).^[3]
• 1865 – noun, a peep or glance (dialect).^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (chiefly dialectal) To stick out; of a plant, to begin to show above ground; to sprout.^[5][3]
2. (chiefly dialectal) To peep or peer; to look out.^[5][3][6]
3. (chiefly dialectal) To look searchingly; to pry.^[5][3][6]

Noun

1. (chiefly dialectal) A hill or high place used as a lookout; a rocky promontory.^[5][6][3]

toot² sound a horn

Etymology

The word for sounding a horn is perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German tūten (“to blow a horn”),^{[11][6][12][13]} unless it is a parallel imitative formation;^[11][6][12] the American Heritage Dictionary, Etymonline, Klein and Partridge call it ultimately imitative of the sound.^{[14][15][16][17]} Merriam-Webster takes it as probably imitative, like the Middle Low German verb and Middle Dutch tūten.^[5] Compare Dutch toeten, German tuten, Swedish tuta and Norwegian tute;^[13][16][17] the OED and Barnhart think the Scandinavian forms were perhaps influenced by Low German, which may also have been the source of the English word.^[3][13] The OED rejects a link with Old Norse þjóta (“to blow a horn, whistle”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a horn, to give out its sound: about 1510.^[8][13][5] The current OED dates its first quotation, from a translation of the Kalender of Shepeherdes, to 1516: Take hede of my horne, totynge al alowde.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Within a few decades the verb was used of the person blowing the horn (1549),^[3] and transitively of shouting something out (1582),^[3] of playing notes or a tune on a horn or pipe (by the 1610s)^[3][15] and of blowing the instrument itself (by the 1680s).^[3][15] The noun, a blast on a horn, is first recorded in D. Fergusson's Scots proverbs, A new tout in an old horne.^[3] From the early 19th century the verb was used of animals whose calls resemble a horn, such as a braying ass or a calling grouse,^[3][5] and the reduplicated toot-toot appears in 1883.^[3] American slang made tootin’ a strong affirmative (you're damned tootin’, by 1932), and rootin’ tootin’, noisy and rambunctious, is recorded by 1924.^[15] In slang the verb has also meant to break wind (from 1951).^[18] In English dialect, to toot on another horn was to change the subject or tone.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1510 – of a horn, to give out its sound.^[8][13][5] The current OED dates the quotation to 1516.^[3]
• 1549 – of a person, to blow a horn.^[3]
• 1582 – to call out loudly, shout.^[3]
• before 1598 – noun, a blast on a horn.^[3] Merriam-Webster and the 1989 edition of the OED give 1641.^[5][8]
• 1614 – to play notes or a tune on a horn or pipe.^[3][15]
• 1682 – to blow a horn.^[3][15]
• 1817 – of an animal, to make a call like a horn.^[3]
• 1883 – the reduplicated toot-toot.^[3]
• 1932 – tootin’, as a strong affirmative.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a horn or whistle, to sound a short blast: A car horn tooted twice outside.^[19][5][3]
2. To blow a horn or other wind instrument, especially in short blasts.^[5][3]
3. To make a sound like the blast of a horn, as some birds and animals do.^[5][3]
4. To cause a horn to sound, or to play notes on it.^[19][3]

Noun

1. A short blast on a horn or whistle, or a sound like it.^[19][5][3]

Word family

• tooter
• tootle

toot³ drink heavily

Etymology

The word for drinking heavily, in Scots spelled tout, is of obscure origin.^[3][5][6] The OED suggests it may have begun as thieves' cant, and compares Swedish tuta (“to drink grog”), which may itself come from English.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To drink copiously: first in touting-ken, a tavern bar, in E. Coles's English Dictionary (1676).^[3] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the late 17th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In 18th-century Scots verse the verb meant to drink deeply or to drain a cup,^[3][10] and the noun, recorded from 1787, a copious draught.^[8][5] A. Shirrefs's poems of 1790 gloss tout as a drinking match,^[18] and the noun spread to American slang as a drunken spree, especially in the phrase on a toot, and once also a tea party.^[8][15][18] The verb followed in the United States as to go on a spree (1890).^[3] Merriam-Webster also records a toot of any unrestrained indulgence, a binge.^[5] From the 1960s drug slang used the verb for smoking marijuana and inhaling cocaine,^[18][3] and the noun for cocaine or a snort of it (by 1977).^[8][15] Green's Dictionary of Slang and the OED take the drug senses from the drinking word,^[18][8] whereas Merriam-Webster and Etymonline list the cocaine noun with the horn word.^[5][15]

Timeline

• 1676 – to drink copiously.^[3]
• before 1774 – to drain a drinking vessel.^[3]
• 1787 – noun, a copious draught.^[8][5]
• 1790 – a drinking match, a spree.^[8][18][15]
• 1890 – to go on a spree (US).^[3]
• 1961 – to smoke marijuana.^[18]
• 1974 – to inhale cocaine.^[18] The OED's first quotation is from 1975.^[3]
• 1977 – noun, cocaine, a snort of cocaine.^[8][15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Scottish) To drink heavily; to drink deeply of something, to quaff.^[5][3][6]
2. To go on a drinking spree.^[3][6]
3. (slang) To snort cocaine.^[3][18]

Noun

1. (Scottish) A drink of liquor; a swig.^[5][6][8]
2. A drinking bout or binge; also, a spell of unrestrained indulgence in anything: After the exams they went on a toot.^[5][19][6]
3. (slang) Cocaine, or a snort of it.^[5][19][6]