Guys named "Buzz"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>This etymology might explain some of the early "Buzzes" discovered by Doug.

Seems likely enough, cf. "Bud"/"Buddy".

Other possibilities include alteration of names such as "Buster", I suppose.

In some cases, particularly when the nickname is applied to a boxer, maybe
it is short for "buzz saw" or so.

And then of course there's "buzz job", which has (at least) three senses,
(1) an aviation sense shown in HDAS, (2) a "close haircut" sense, and (3)
an 'obscene' sense [which I recall only from Willeford's memoir (available,
sort of, at Google Books)]. I think sense (2) seems a likely ancestor of
sense (1); where does sense (3) fit in?

-- Doug Wilson


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