<hw>Coo-ee</hw>, or <hw>Cooey</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>interj</i>. spelt in various ways. See quotations. A call borrowed from the aborigines and used in the bush by one wishing to find or to be found by another. In the vocabulary of native words in `Hunter's Journal,' published in 1790, we find "Cow-ee = to come."
1827. P. Cunningham, `New South Wales,' vol. ii. p. 23:
"In calling to each other at a distance, the natives make use of the word <i>Coo-ee</i>, as we do the word <i>Hollo</i>, prolonging the sound of the <i>coo</i>, and closing that of the <i>ee</i> 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 `<i>Coo-ee'</i> to him, instead of Hollo to him."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 162:
"He immediately called `coo-oo-oo' to the natives at the fire."
1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 84:
"There yet might be heard the significant `<i>cooy'</i> or `quhy,' the true import of which was then unknown to our ears."
1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 46:
"Although Mr. Brown made the woods echo with his `cooys.'"
[See also p. 87, note.]
1845. Clement Hodgkinson, `Australia from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay,' p. 28: