the.com/hoot

means A short, hollow cry like an owl's call, or by extension a sudden shout, jeer, or burst of laughter — and informally, the smallest measurable amount of caring, as in 'I don't give a hoot.'

from An echoic word — it sounds like the thing it names, the breathy 'hoo' of an owl or a person yelling derision. Forms like 'hoten' and 'houten' turn up in Middle English for making such a noise, and similar imitative words appear across Germanic languages, which isn't surprising since people everywhere hear the same owl. The dismissive 'not give a hoot,' meaning not to care a particle, is a later American twist, putting a comically tiny value on a comically small sound.