Hoser (1981)

[James Stalker]

Geoff Nathan wrote:

> I had always assumed that being 'hosed' was military slang, deriving
> from the term 'hose down' meaning to spray machine gun fire into an
> area (I don't have a reference for this but I'm pretty sure it was
> used at least as far back as WW II).  Certainly having one's computer
> hosed means having it destroyed, and while that is an extended meaning
> for 'fucked', I think my alternative is at least possible.  I'll buy
> the alternative, sexual, interpretation for 'hoser', however.
>
> Geoff

Flexner, in Listening to America, lists "hoseman" in a fire brigade from
1825 (p. 223), which would tie in with the military usage.

<The Scots Dialect Dictionary> (compiled by Alexander Warrack, 1911) has
an intriguing possibility which requires some phonological and
morphological adjustment, and perhaps a bit of folk etymology.  A
variant of "hose/hosen" is "hoshen" defined as 'a footless stocking' but
also as 'a bad, pithless worker' (p. 272).  A Scots source for a
Canadian term seems possible.

Jim Stalker.