tu-whitv.
/tᵿˈwɪt/, U.S. /tuˈ(h)wɪt/ intransitive. Of an owl: to make its characteristic call (see tu-whit int.). Sometimes: spec. (of a female tawny owl) to make its characteristic contact call, to which the male responds with a hooting sound (see tu-whoo v.).Recorded earliest in tu-whitting n. at Derivatives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Strigiformes or owl > [verb (intransitive)] > hoot
hoota1500
whoopa1556
tu-whoo1824
tu-whit1866
tu-whoot1912
owl1941
1866 [implied in: Macmillan's Mag. Nov. 12 Enter Chorus of Owls... What the dickens means our brother By tu-whitting and tu-whooing? (at tu-whitting at Derivatives)].
1902 A. Lang in Longman's Mag. Dec. 99 He heard the owls towhitting and towhooing from the wood.
1948 P. G. Wodehouse Uncle Dynamite (1949) ix. 137 Owls tu-whitted, other owls tu-whooed.
1998 Western Daily Press (Nexis) 19 Oct. 7 It is not politically correct to shoot owls, so they toowhit from dusk to dawn.
Derivatives
tu-ˈwhitting n.
ΚΠ
1866 Macmillan's Mag. Nov. 12 Enter Chorus of Owls... What the dickens means our brother By tu-whitting and tu-whooing?
1924 Anaconda (Montana) Standard 19 May 4/5 All I got for my too-witting and too-hooing all over the place was to wake up another owl some distance off.
2017 @MissTrug 29 Sept. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Owls are being noisy this week. A little twitting and lots of twooing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
tu-whitint.n.
/tᵿˈwɪt/, U.S. /tuˈ(h)wɪt/α. (also reduplicated) 1500s twyt, 1800s– twit.
β. 1800s– too-whit, 1800s– tu-whit, 1900s to-whit, 1900s too-wit.
A. int.
Representing the characteristic call of an owl; (sometimes) spec. representing the short, shrill contact call of the female tawny owl, to which the male responds with a hooting sound (see tu-whoo int.). Cf. tu-whit tu-whoo int.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Strigiformes or owl > [interjection] > cry of owl
tu-whoo1579
whoo1581
tu-whit1591
tu-whit tu-whoo1594
woo-hoo1771
boo hoo1799
1591 J. Lyly Endimion iii. iii. sig. E3 A goodly Owle..sitting vpon my shoulder, cryed twyt, twyt... I meruailed what the Owle said, til at the last, I perceiued twyt twyt, to it, to it.
1883 J. P. Hardy Children's Black & White Picture & Painting Bk. 35 ‘Tu-whit!’ cried the owl.
1887 F. Raymond-Ritter Songs & Ballads 87 Lordly 't is, an owl to be, Castled in a hollow oaken tree! Twit!
1912 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 368/2 Tu-whit, said an owl from a quaint old tower.
2012 Carmarthen Jrnl. (Nexis) 26 Sept. 35 The one who may call ‘Tu-whit’ to be answered ‘Tu-whoo’ is, of course, the Tawny.
B. n.
The characteristic call of an owl; (sometimes) spec. the short, shrill contact call of the female tawny owl, to which the male responds with a hooting sound (see tu-whoo n.). Cf. tu-whit tu-whoo n. 2.
ΚΠ
1830 Ld. Tennyson Poems 47 Thy tuwhits are lulled I wot, Thy tuwhoos of yesternight.
1855 New Monthly Mag. June 156 A smart new version of the old fable of the Owl and the Hawk, which cleverly differentiates between the tu-whit and the tu-whoo of the former bird.
1862 G. Aimard Border Rifles iv. 35 The owl..had twice saluted the return of light, with its melancholy too-whit.
1920 E. Close Cherry Isle vii. 72 The short sharp ‘twit-twit’ of an owl.
2018 Express (Nexis) 28 Sept. 14 Usually the ‘tu-whit’ is the female and the hoot is the male replying.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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v.1866
int.n.1591