It's a hoot!

[Victoria Neufeldt]

This is surely what could be called "standard slang", to coin an oxymoron;
goes back to the verb "to hoot" meaning to laugh loudly and unrestrainedly.
OED has first quote from 1926 for the verb, which they define as "to laugh".
The noun use is also entered in the OED quoting as first evidence the entry
in Berrey and Van den Bark, American Thesaurus of Slang (1942), which
defined it as "something humorous".  The Random House Historical Dict of
Amer Slang also has a dict entry, but a much earlier one, as its first
written evidence of the noun; turns out to be Dialect Notes, dated 1926:
"Hoot, n. An absurdly funny person, thing, or occurrence. 'My dear, she's
such a hoot!' "  No indication that origin is in gay slang, and there
doesn't seem to be any reason to look for such an origin.  Its derivation
from the verb seems clear, and the verb meaning "to laugh" itself follows
logically from the general verb meaning of making a loud, inarticulate
noise.

The DARE entry hoot2 is a different word, a noun unrelated to the one
referring to laughter or any kind of noise.  (The "laugh" verb is probably
not of U.S. origin, and not certain that the noun is either; also, it would
appear that neither one is regionally restricted.)

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt
Merriam-Webster, Inc. P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102
Tel: 413-734-3134  ext 124
Fax: 413-827-7262

> -----Original Message-----
 Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM writes on Friday, March 03, 2000 11:46 AM

> Subject: It's a hoot!
>
>
> Ron writes:
>
> >>>>>
> In a message dated 3/2/2000 10:06:47 AM,
> bergdahl at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU writes:
>  << Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>   > My southern Ohio students think my Minnesota /o/ is a hoot [...]
>   ...now there's an Athens & surrounding region form: "it's a
> hoot!"  DARE gives
>   hoot2 as related to Hutterites...does this generalized use of
> the term have
>   more than regional use?
>  >>
>
> I first heard this in the 1970s. I assumed it was gay male slang, though
> maybe it was just a southernism. The guy I heard it from was both.
> <<<<<
>
> I use this expression regularly, meaning "That's really funny!". I think I
> picked it up from my wife. We both grew up in NYC in the late
> fifties and early
> sixties. She grew up in the East Village and is more likely to
> have picked up
> expressions influenced directly or indirectly by gay men's usage
> than I, growing
> up on the Upper West Side (and in the social community I lived in).
>
> OTOH, we both went to college at CCNY (late sixties - early seventies) and
> graduate school at UC Berkeley (mid/late seventies), so we might
> have picked it
> up there.