brita@princeton.UUCP (01/19/84)
Lately I've been seeing references (mainly in net.jokes) to `ding
letters', rejection letters to job-seekers.
The term is new to me -- at Princeton, the term is `hose letters'.
This is derived from a very common (locally) verb, `to hose', used generically
for screwing someone over, or rejection. For example, "She hosed me for a
date this weekend," or "The professor really hosed us on that exam."
Has anyone seen this usage anywhere else in the country? The usage
in Canada (e.g., `hosehead') seems quite different, though it's almost
certainly the source of Princeton's word.
Stewart Wiener
Princeton Univ. EECS '84
{allegra,harpo,ulysses}!princeton!flakey!stewartgam@proper.UUCP (Gordon Moffett) (01/20/84)
The usage of `to hose' that you describe is exactly what I was told is the Canadian usage (by a Canadian). This is in some article I posted to this newsgroup a while back.
cej@ll1.UUCP (01/20/84)
[] The first time I EVER heard the word "hosed" used was in High School, in '72. It was used by my gym instructor, in just about the same sense. His "big" line was "Are ya' hosin', kid? Are ya' hosin' me!?" He seemed to be a late 50's ex-greaser type, and had an eastern accent (New York, maybe?). This was in Cleveland. We'll burn that bridge when we come to it... Chuck Jones AT&T Communications ...we13!ll1!cej Chicago, Il
jss@brunix.UUCP (Judith Schrier) (01/20/84)
I seem to remember some reference *way* back in the past to "taking the hose", meaning to (fatally) breathe gas from the pipe leading to the stove. judith brunix!jss
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (01/21/84)
Sure, at here Deep Thought (the student's TOPS-20), we "hose" each other all the time. It's sort of like getting "hacked," with a subtle difference: hacking usually involves something clever (Cal-Tech "hacked" the Rose Bowl, MIT people "hacked" the Harvard-Yale game), whereas hosing can be something as unoriginal as knocking someone over when they're leaning back in their chair. Also, anything that you say "Yah!!" for is a hose. Putting an empty coke can in someone's jacket sleeve is a hack. We used to keep a hose down here. One day, our department head came down here and started playing with it. After a couple of days, we didn't see it anymore. I think he came down here when we weren't around and took it. We have another one now, but it's not as good as the original (nothing ever is). I hope this has cleared things up for people. -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh
ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi) (02/04/84)
This is an aside. The author of the article to which this is a followup said that a hack is something you said "YAH" to. I first encountered this usage in stories by Larry Niven, many of whose characters say "Yah" when they want a casual affirmative (as opposed to the formal "Yes".) Until now, I never knew anyone who actually talked that way. Everyone I know says "Yeah". That is the way it is spelled, and the dipthong is promounced like the "a" in "bat" or "man". I have always assumed that "Yah" would be pronounced like "ah", since otherwise the writer would have used the more conventional "yeah". Or is this just a California spelling for "yeah"? Mike Ciaraldi ciaraldi@rochester