sb. Also cow-eo, koo-eh, coohee, coo-ee, cooie. The call or cry (kūūūūi·!) used as a signal by the Australian aborigines, and adopted by the colonists in the bush.
(‘If the prolonged stress laid upon the syllable coo were expressed in letters, there ought to be six or eight oo’s to the one short sharp shrill ee.’ E. A Petherick.)
1790. Vocab., in Gov. Hunter’s Jrnl., 408. Cow-ee to come.
1827. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales, II. 23. In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word Coo-ee, as we do the word Hollo, prolonging the sound of the coo, and closing that of the ee with a shrill jerk … [It has] become of general use throughout the colony; and a newcomer, in desiring an individual to call another back, soon learns to say ‘Coo-ee to him’ instead of Hollo to him.
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 315. The ringing koo-eh of the aborigine.
1871. Athenæum, 27 May, 651. In a narrow and rocky gorge … Mr. Cooper gave the Australian cry of ‘coohee,’ which was answered by a thousand echoes.
1887. G. L. Apperson, in All Year Round, 30 July, 67/1. A common mode of expression is to be ‘within cooey’ of a place … Now to be ‘within cooey’ of Sydney is to be at the distance of an easy journey therefrom.
1889. Pall Mall G., 3 Jan., 1/3. Two well-known and wealthy Australian squatters on a visit to the mother country lost themselves in a London fog, and were only reunited after a series of shrill and vigorous ‘coo-e’s.’
Hence Cooee, cooey v. intr., to utter this call.
1827. [see above].
1859. All Year Round, No. 4. 80. When I cooeyed, like a ‘black fellow,’ from Queen Anne’s tower.
1888. McCarthy & Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, I. i. 10. A black fellow would not coo-ēe in that way.
