to house = to eat

[Laurence Horn]

On Oct 23, 2013, at 11:20 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 10/23/2013 10:17 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> No relation, I expect, with the perhaps now defunct slang participle
>> "housed" = 'inebriated' which turned up in profusion in my students'
>> new word journals a decade ago and which I was informed was
>> pronounced to rhyme with "doused" rather than "roused".  I never did
>> figure out what the etymology of that one was.  Too bad that now
>> there's no longer any college slang term for '(to be) drunk' ;-)
>
> There is "hosed", I think from my college days.  (More than a decade
> ago.)  Not in the OED, as verb nor participle, but ample on
> Google.  E.g.,
> http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/hosed and
> UrbanDictionary.  Of course, the S is not pronounced as Larry reports.
>
> "Hosed" = "Watered" with strong water?  Could "hosed" for
> overindulgence in drink have evolved into "housed" for overindulgence in food?
>
Urbandic has some interesting speculations:

2. housed
To get royally shitfaced or shitHOUSED.

That would explain the voiceless /s/, in the manner of "grandstanded" instead of "grandstood".

There are other relevant entries, with no pronunciation guide, e.g.

4. Housed
extremly intoxicated, the highest form of drunk possible.
Hurry up man, I'm trying to get housed before the night is done.

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