The Oxford English Dictionary word of the day is owl-hoot. The word means “the hooting sound made by an owl; a sound imitating or resembling this.”
A later meaning, “esp. in the language of Wild West fiction, etc.”: ”a fugitive, an outlaw. Hence: a worthless or contemptible person.” That’s an owlhoot, without the hyphen. Cowboys got no time for hyphens.
But the earliest meaning of owl-hoot, now archaic and rare: “dusk, nightfall.”
It is 8:55 p.m.: owl-hoot.
Friday, June 16, 2017
Word of the night: owl-hoot
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"Owl-hoot" meaning nightfall sounds like a leftover Norse or Anglo-Saxon kenning. I've heard a good deal of barred owl hooting this year, but in the daytime only (because I don't go to the owl-haunts after dark).
We used to have a resident owl. But lately it’s nothing but tree frogs. The children of the night, what music they make!
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