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From: gam@proper.UUCP (Gordon Moffett)
Newsgroups: proper.language,net.nlang
Subject: Canadian slang: "hoser"
Message-ID: <827@proper.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Jan-84 03:21:40 EST
Article-I.D.: proper.827
Posted: Tue Jan 10 03:21:40 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Jan-84 05:11:14 EST
Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA
Lines: 18

I was talking to a man over the phone, he being in a certain Mid-western
Canadian city, dealing with a Unix bug envolving terminal drivers, when
he said, "... and the line gets hosed."

I stopped him right there.  Finally, a Real Canadian Person was using
`hose' in some meaningful context.  I immediately asked him about the
usage of this word, my having learned it from Bob and Doug MacKenzie.
I told him I even called the Canadian Embassy in San Francisco and they
didn't know what I was refering to, and I've never really understood what
it meant.

But apparently this word means `screwed' (figuratively), `messed up',
and its variant forms convey obvious meaning (`hosehead' -- like
`nucklehead', or as he put it, `spambrain'; and `hoser', screwed-up
person, etc).

I feel so much better now.  The true meaning of this word has eluded
me for several years.  I am now enlightened.