Etymology Abbreviation of hoochinoo, name of a specific liquor, from Tlingit Xutsnoowú Ḵwáan, the group that produced it, from Hutsnuwu (“grizzly bear fort”), the name of the village on Admiralty Island in which they lived. From Tlingit xóots (“grizzly bear”).
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Canada, US, Informal An alcoholic beverage, especially an inferior or illicit one and especially liquor such as whisky.
he was so grief-stricken that he literally drowned his sorrow in “hootch-i-noo,” the native equivalent of whiskey. […] Had he not been so sad he would not have drunk the “hootch,” and if he had not drunk the hootch he would not have died: a perfectly reasonable and logical argument.c. 1910, O.M. Salisbury, chapter 3, in Quoth the raven: A little journey into the primitive, Seattle: Superior Publishing Company, published 1962, page 17:
Bring on the free hooch!1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Banky Edwards (Jason Lee):
Etymology First attested in the 1950s, probably borrowed from Japanese 家(うち) (uchi, “house”), especially the dialectal form with an initial h- used on the Ryukyu islands where many American soldiers were based.
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A thatched hut, CHU, or any simple dwelling.
Vietnam War-era military slang
Burn the hooches.2022 December 6, Avatar: The Way of Water, spoken by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang):