Also 4 tote-, 4–5 tute-, 6–8 tout-hill. Preserved in many forms toot-, tote-, tot-, tut- in place-names. [ME. tōte-hill, f. TOOT v.1 (or sb.1) + HILL.] A natural or artificial hill or mound used for a look-out place; a prominent hill; = TOOT sb.1 1. (In quot. 1250 a place-name.)
[1250. Pat. Roll 34 Hen. III., m. 1. Concessimus … quod illa feria que consuevit esse in eorum cimeterio apud West-monasterium … fit singulis annis apud Tothull’.]
1382. Wyclif, 2 Sam. v. 7. Forsothe Dauid took the tote [v.rr. tool, tute] hil [1383 tour of] Syon; that is the citee of Dauid. Ibid., Isa. xxi. 8. Vpon the toothil of the Lord I am stondende.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 498/1. Tote hylle, or hey place of lokynge, conspicillum.
1483. Cath. Angl., 398/1. A Tute hylle, aruisium montarium.
1532–3. Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees), 181. Pro factura unius muri circa le toythyll 5s. 10d.
1535. Goodly Prymer (1834), 163. Sion by interpretation signifieth a tout-hill, or a place where a man may see far about him.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XVIII. viii. 118. A certaine high Barbican or Toot-hill [specula].
1827. Hodgson, Hist. Northumbld., II. I. 286, note. In a field, a little to the north-east of Hartington, there is a small conical hill, apparently natural, but artificially terraced, which is called the Tote-hill.
1886. Chester Gloss., Toot Hill, prop. name, a steep hill near Alvanley.
1894. O. Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss., Tuthill, Tote-hill, an eminence. Or frequent occurrence in place-names. The Tuthill-stairs in Newcastle ascend the eminence (called Tout-hill in Bourne’s map, 1736) from The Close to Clavering Place…. In old formal gardens a tout-hill was an artificial mound formed for the purpose of commanding a prospect.
