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From: tugs@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Hull)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: hoser -- an alternate Canadian viewpoint, eh?
Message-ID: <3182@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Jan-84 05:11:39 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3182
Posted: Mon Jan 23 05:11:39 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jan-84 05:51:46 EST
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 27

When Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis began this whole thing
on SCTV they unleashed a real can of worms.  From other
Canadians situated about the country (and even the province)
I've heard several interpretations.  However, I have my
own (naturally), which dates back to my high school days in
Kitchener, Ontario (about 60 miles west of Toronto -- that's ~100km).

I think hoser must be a variant of a common insult we traded in
those not-quite-halcyon days: "hosebag."  "Hosebag" didn't have any
specific interpretation, it was just a good, general-purpose insult.
For those of you not conversant with the term, it is a synonym for
"douchebag."  And "douchebag" is a term used to describe, somewhat
less scatologically, a plastic envelope containing fluids
used in (ahem) vaginal irrigation.

Granted, the similarity may be only coincidental, but I would state
this in my case: Dave Thomas went to high school in my general area
of the country (southwestern-to-central-southern Ontario), and it's
possible he was within the same sphere of linguistic influence as I.

Beauty, eh?  Way to go!  Decent!!

     steve hull
-- 
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