slang term for compensation, payment,money; characteristic corruption of Maori Utu (q.v.)
1896. `Truth' (Sydney), Jan. 12:
«There are several specimens of bush slang transplanted fromthe Maori language. `Hoot' is a very frequent synonym formoney or wage. I have heard a shearer at the Pastoralist Unionoffice in Sydney when he sought to ascertain the scale ofremuneration, enquire of the gilt-edged clerk behind thebarrier, `What's the hoot, mate?' The Maori equivalent formoney is utu, pronounced by the Ngapuhi and othernorthern tribes with the last syllable clipped, and the word isvery largely used by the kauri-gum diggers and station hands inthe North Island. The original meaning of utu in Maoriis `revenge.' When the missionaries first settled in NewZealand, they found that the savage inhabitants had noconception of any recompense except the grim recompense ofblood. Under Christianizing influences the natives wereinduced to forego the blood-revenge for injuries, on receivinga solatium in goods or land, and so utu came to have thedouble meaning of revenge and recompense, and eventually becamerecognized as the Maori word for money.»