HOOT

Where it comes from

From Middle English houten, huten, hoten, assumed to be of North Germanic origin: Swedish hut! (“begone!”, interjection) (also dialectal Norwegian hut, Bornholm Danish hut, hot), Swedish huta (“to drive someone away (with calls)”), Old Swedish huta (“to cast out in contempt”), related to Swedish hojta (“to holler”), hojt (“a holler”), further related to Middle High German hiuzen, hūzen (“to call to pursuit”). Swedish hut is the common command to call off and silence barking (hunting) dogs on the pursuit. Compare Swedish veta hut (“know one's place, like a dog”, literally “to know 'hoot' (the command)”). The Middle High German terms could suggest an earlier Proto-Germanic (hunting dog command?) *hūt- (“to command barking en pursuit?”). Maybe cognate to shout? Ultimately onomatopoeic. Compare Old Norse hutututu (“brr”), Norwegian hutra, Swedish huttra, huttla, Danish hudre, Low German hudern, German huttern (“to shiver”). Further compare English hoy, Dutch hui, Low German hoi, Norwegian hoi, Swedish hoj, Danish hoj, huj (“ho, hallo”).

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

HOOT in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 15 boards so far. 49 players have found it across Outlier's history.

It first turned up on Day 9, 29 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 119, 16 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 2 days.

First found by a player on Day 9, 29 May 2026.

Built from these letters

HOOT starts with H and ends with T. Sorted, its letters read HOOT - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. O appears more than once, including a double letter.

Same letters, different word

One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start HOOT

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 9