A device that makes a loud hooting sound, such as a car horn or factory whistle.
From 'hoot' plus agent suffix '-er', imitating the sound made. The verb 'hoot' comes from Middle English, ultimately imitative of owl calls. Extended to mechanical sound-makers by the early 1900s.
This wonderfully onomatopoeic word shows how English creates new terms by simply adding '-er' to sound words. The progression from owl calls to car horns demonstrates how we naturally extend animal sound words to describe similar mechanical noises.
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