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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!randvax!edhall
From: edhall@randvax.ARPA (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Canadian slang: "hoser"
Message-ID: <1655@randvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 26-Jan-84 22:49:33 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.1655
Posted: Thu Jan 26 22:49:33 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Jan-84 01:01:19 EST
References: <827@proper.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 14

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I just peeked in my Dictionary of American Slang (an awfully thick
book for something which doesn't seem to have much slang from since
the second World War).  It had just one definition: to flatter
someone insincerely was to `hose' them.  No derivation...

Back in the late 1960's when my sister was an undergraduate in
Wooster, Ohio, one of the slang expressions she picked up was
to `hose' someone; this meant to fool them or to pull a practical
joke on them (the latter called `pulling a hose').  Thus in this
case as well a `hoser' was an insincere person.

		-Ed
		decvax!randvax!edhall