Start with the sound, not the thing: a low, drawn-out 'hoo' that carries a long way — across a harbour, across a field at night, down a street. Now add -er, 'the one that does it'. A hooter is whatever makes that sound. That is why one word covers a ship's , a car horn and a factory whistle: they are not the same machine, they are the same noise.
可以想成先有聲音，才有東西：一個低低的、拉得很長的「嗚——」，可以傳很遠，傳過港口、傳過夜裡的田野、傳過整條街。再加上 -er，也就是「做這件事的那一個」。所以 hooter 的意思可以想成「會發出那個聲音的東西」。這樣就看得懂，為什麼船的汽笛、車的喇叭、工廠的汽笛可以共用一個字：它們不是同一台機器，而是同一種聲音。
From the word’s history
From hoot + -er, the regular agent suffix: 'the one that hoots'. The packet's etymology tree traces -er back through Old English -ere.
由 hoot（發出低沉的嗚聲）加上 -er（做這個動作的人或東西）組成，字面就是「會嗚嗚叫的那一個」。資料裡的字源樹把 -er 一路追到古英語 -ere。
Wiktionary entry supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:519793777:51173)
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