Also 6–9 to-, too-, -who, -hoo; 9 towhoo towhoo; etc. [Imitative.] An imitation of the call of an owl. See also prec. and next.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 928. Then nightly sings the staring Owle Tu-whit to-who. A merrie note.
1594. Lyly, Moth. Bomb., III. iv. To whit to whoo, the Owle does cry.
1607. Barley-Breake (1877), 9. Too whit, too whoo, cries out the broad-fac’d Owle.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. 3. The owls have awakened the crowing cock; Tu—whit!——Tu—whoo!
b. sb. The utterance of this cry; the hoot of an owl; also, the use of the expression in literature.
1830. Tennyson, 2nd Song to Owl, i. Thy tuwhits are lull’d I wot, Thy tuwhoos of yesternight. Ibid., ii. With a lengthen’d loud halloo, Tuwhoo, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwhoo-o-o.
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales, liii. What resemblance does Shakespear’s to-whit-to-whoo bear to the cry of the owl? none whatever.
c. Hence as a name for the owl. nonce-use.
1604. Terilo, Fr. Bacon’s Proph. (Percy Soc.), 8. And olde to whit to whoo Did watch the winter night.
