hosey?
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us
I was interviewing an American Indian lawyer yesterday, and he said
something like, "Buying land isn't the only way you can get it back. You can
get it from a land claim. In some cases you can just hosey it... as in, `I
hosey that land is mine.'" Has anyone encountered this word? In children's
play, by any chance? Where is it used? (I'm fairly sure about the
pronunciation--rhymes with "rosy"--but of course I'm not sure about the
spelling.)
I don't know where the speaker grew up or what tribe he's from, just that
he has some non-Indian ancestry and didn't grow up on a reservation.
Jerry Friedman
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N.Mitchum
jfriedman wrote:
------
> I was interviewing an American Indian lawyer yesterday, and he said
> something like, "Buying land isn't the only way you can get it back. You can
> I don't know where the speaker grew up or what tribe he's from, just that
> he has some non-Indian ancestry and didn't grow up on a reservation.
A lawyer describing legal matters could have been speaking
Legalese. His also being Indian may have had nothing to do with
his use of "hosey," however it's spelled. Perhaps it's a Latin
phrase that has been turned into a verb. I'm sure I've heard of
witnesses being "voir-dired" (French), and there must be plenty
more, such as "to pro-bono a case," "to sine die the court."
All else failing, you could call him back and ask about the word.
----NM
Lawrence J. Krakauer
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us wrote:
>
> I was interviewing an American Indian lawyer yesterday, and he said
> something like, "Buying land isn't the only way you can get it back. You can
> hosey that land is mine.'" Has anyone encountered this word? In children's
> play, by any chance? Where is it used? (I'm fairly sure about the
> pronunciation--rhymes with "rosy"--but of course I'm not sure about the
> spelling.)
> he has some non-Indian ancestry and didn't grow up on a reservation.
I've heard it as children's slang in the US, here in the Northeast,
that I wonder where you live in the US that you *haven't* heard it.
It indeed rhymes with "rosy", and is used as the equivalent of another
slang expression using "dibs". For example, children about to get
into a car might say either:
Dibs on the front seat.
or
I hosey the front seat.
Being the first person to say it gets you the privilege of riding
in the front seat.
I don't know where "hosey" is used instead of "dibs"; perhaps
others know more about this.
--
Larry Krakauer (lar...@kronos.com)
H Gilmer
Lawrence J. Krakauer (Lar...@kronos.com) wrote:
: I've heard it as children's slang in the US, here in the Northeast,
: that I wonder where you live in the US that you *haven't* heard it.
: It indeed rhymes with "rosy", and is used as the equivalent of another
: slang expression using "dibs". For example, children about to get
Data point: I'm from the Northeast & never heard "hosey". Heard/used
"dibs", though. I'll ask the younger siblings in New Jersey if they
know "hosey".
Hg
nancy g.
Well, I'm from a bit further north and further east (Massachusetts) and
have heard both, although we used "hosey" much more often than "dibs."
I always thought I heard a bit of an L sound in the word, though, as if
it should be spelled "holsie" or even "holdsie". I wondered as I got older
if it had started as a corruption of the word "hold" or "holding."
We also would say something that sounded more like "*Hi* holdsie" rather
than "*I* holdsie" to stake our claims. I have no idea why.
Evan Kirshenbaum
gil...@uts.cc.utexas.edu (H Gilmer) writes:
> Lawrence J. Krakauer (Lar...@kronos.com) wrote:
>
> : I've heard it as children's slang in the US, here in the Northeast,
> : that I wonder where you live in the US that you *haven't* heard it.
> : It indeed rhymes with "rosy", and is used as the equivalent of another
> : slang expression using "dibs". For example, children about to get
>
> Data point: I'm from the Northeast & never heard "hosey". Heard/used
> "dibs", though. I'll ask the younger siblings in New Jersey if they
> know "hosey".
Further data point: Chicago. "Dibs", no "hosey".
"Dibs" is in MWCD10 (1812--originally money, especially in small
amounts, short for "dibstones", jacks). "Hosey" doesn't appear to be.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Object-oriented designs are like
1501 Page Mill Road, Building 1U |software development on drugs...you
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |take inanimate objects and bring
|them to life.
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com | Craig Larman
(650)857-7572
Paul Juhl
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us wrote in article
<6ljlpv$sjd$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
> I was interviewing an American Indian lawyer yesterday, and he said
> something like, "Buying land isn't the only way you can get it back. You
can
> get it from a land claim. In some cases you can just hosey it... as in,
`I
> hosey that land is mine.'" Has anyone encountered this word?
You should have asked him exactly what it means and where the word comes
from, Jerry. Otherwise, you can't very well use it in the story or whatever
it is you are writing ... assuming you interviewed him for a writing
project.
Please call him, get the details and pass the info back to us.
--
Paul
Lawrence J. Krakauer
nancy g. wrote:
> H Gilmer wrote:
> > Lawrence J. Krakauer (Lar...@kronos.com) wrote:
>
> >> I've heard it as children's slang in the US, here in the Northeast,
> >> that I wonder where you live in the US that you *haven't* heard it.
> >> It indeed rhymes with "rosy", and is used as the equivalent of another
> >> slang expression using "dibs". For example, children about to get
>
> > Data point: I'm from the Northeast & never heard "hosey". Heard/used
> > "dibs", though. I'll ask the younger siblings in New Jersey if they
> > know "hosey".
>
> have heard both, although we used "hosey" much more often than "dibs."
> I always thought I heard a bit of an L sound in the word, though, as if
> it should be spelled "holsie" or even "holdsie". I wondered as I got older
> if it had started as a corruption of the word "hold" or "holding."
>
> We also would say something that sounded more like "*Hi* holdsie" rather
> than "*I* holdsie" to stake our claims. I have no idea why.
Well, I guess I need to be a bit more precise. I was born in New York
City,
and came to Cambridge, Massachusetts to go to college, and stayed and
have
been here ever since.
I remember "dibs" from my childhood, and "hosey" from later on. It is
possible I never heard "hosey" until I arrived in Massachusetts, so it
may in fact be a Massachusetts thing. I'd also be inclined to spell
it "hosie" (I'm not sure why).
I like Nancy's suggestion that it might come from "holdsie", meaning
"to put a hold on something". I know of no evidence, but it sounds
plausible.
--
Larry Krakauer (lar...@kronos.com)
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us
In article <01bd93e4$712f6540$4f0ca7d1@default>,
"Paul Juhl" <pj...@jbsyndicate.com> wrote:
...
> You should have asked him exactly what it means and where the word comes
> from, Jerry. Otherwise, you can't very well use it in the story or whatever
> it is you are writing ... assuming you interviewed him for a writing
> project.
>
> Please call him, get the details and pass the info back to us.
Now I don't have to--thanks to all the people who answered! By the way,
it's the kind of writing project where we paraphrase much more than we quote,
so getting a gloss for a word was much less important than letting him keep
saying what was on his mind. Jerry Friedman
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us
In article <v9hemwy...@garrett.hpl.hp.com>,
Evan Kirshenbaum <ev...@garrett.hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>
> gil...@uts.cc.utexas.edu (H Gilmer) writes:
>
> > Lawrence J. Krakauer (Lar...@kronos.com) wrote:
> >
> > : I've heard it as children's slang in the US, here in the Northeast,
> > : that I wonder where you live in the US that you *haven't* heard it.
> > : It indeed rhymes with "rosy", and is used as the equivalent of another
> > : slang expression using "dibs". For example, children about to get
> >
> > Data point: I'm from the Northeast & never heard "hosey". Heard/used
> > "dibs", though. I'll ask the younger siblings in New Jersey if they
> > know "hosey".
>
Still further: in suburban Cleveland we said, "I call front seat!" I don't
remember an expression for claiming things (though in the right circumstances
we might remark, "Finders keepers, losers weepers," or "Posession is
nine-tenths [sic] of the law."). Lately I've been hearing people say things
like "The public schools have first dibs on that money." I hadn't heard
"first dibs" before. Is this new? Is it just in New Mexico? Or have I not
heard it because I'm not a native speaker of the "dibs" dialect? (Cf.
"langue d'oc".) Jerry Friedman
Evan Kirshenbaum
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us writes:
> In article <v9hemwy...@garrett.hpl.hp.com>,
> Evan Kirshenbaum <ev...@garrett.hpl.hp.com> wrote:
> > Further data point: Chicago. "Dibs", no "hosey".
>
> Still further: in suburban Cleveland we said, "I call front seat!"
We had "call" as well. Now, the question is, what was being called?
The "dibs" expression was
(I got) dibs (on X).
If someone took it anyway, you were likely to say
I called (dibs on) it.
> I don't remember an expression for claiming things (though in the
> right circumstances we might remark, "Finders keepers, losers
> weepers," or "Posession is nine-tenths [sic] of the law."). Lately
> I've been hearing people say things like "The public schools have
> first dibs on that money." I hadn't heard "first dibs" before.
> Is this new? Is it just in New Mexico? Or have I not heard it
> because I'm not a native speaker of the "dibs" dialect?
I'm pretty sure it was common in Chicago when I was growing up.
Remember that when you were calling "dibs", so was everyone else. The
one who got it was the one who called it first. When you had a
commodity that others wanted, to forestall the ritual (or show
favoritism) you could grant someone "first dibs".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Usenet is like Tetris for people
1501 Page Mill Road, Building 1U |who still remember how to read.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Larry Phillips
jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us wrote:
> In some cases you can just hosey it... as in, `I hosey that land is
> mine.'" Has anyone encountered this word? In children's
> play, by any chance? Where is it used? (I'm fairly sure about the
> pronunciation--rhymes with "rosy"--but of course I'm not sure about
> the spelling.)
Growing up in the Vancouver BC, area, our group used the word
'bogeynize'. I am guessing at the spelling, because if you had asked us
back then, we would have said "You don't SPELL it, it's just bogeynize."
The usage was "I bogeynize the <whatever>."
Later, living in Toronto, I heard and used "Dibs on the <whatever>."
--
------------------------------------------------------------
Sixty billion gigabits can do much. It even does windows.
-- Fred Pohl, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, 1980
a1a5...@bc.sympatico.ca
>I don't know where "hosey" is used instead of "dibs"; perhaps
>others know more about this.
>
Never heard it, for land-grab or anything else. I do know what
"hose" is slang for and can understand "getting hosed", but for
the same reason cannot really get my mind around the Canadian
"hoser"= "loser". We *did* use to be a Presbyterianly-inclined
people once, though -- with damnation a vivid probability....
Aaron J. Dinkin
> jfri...@nnm.cc.nm.us wrote:
>
> > In some cases you can just hosey it... as in, `I hosey that land is
> > mine.'" Has anyone encountered this word? In children's
> > play, by any chance? Where is it used? (I'm fairly sure about the
> > pronunciation--rhymes with "rosy"--but of course I'm not sure about
> > the spelling.)
>
> Growing up in the Vancouver BC, area, our group used the word
> 'bogeynize'. I am guessing at the spelling, because if you had asked us
> back then, we would have said "You don't SPELL it, it's just bogeynize."
>
> The usage was "I bogeynize the <whatever>."
>
> Later, living in Toronto, I heard and used "Dibs on the <whatever>."
All these other dialects have such cute terms for things.... All anyone I
knew ever used was "I got the..." or "I call the...".
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
Karin Montin
In old (from the 20s, maybe) books, English schoolchildren used to say
"Bags I [the whatever]." Is this usage still current?
--
Delete extra from address
Albert Marshall
Karin Montin <jext...@ican.net> wrote
>In old (from the 20s, maybe) books, English schoolchildren used to say
>"Bags I [the whatever]." Is this usage still current?
Yup.
Usually pronounced "baggzy", but may also be reversed as "I bags ..."
--
Albert Marshall
Visual Solutions
Kent, England
01634 400902
Rhiannon Macfie
It was a dark and stormy night, and as the people in alt.usage.english
huddled around the fire, Karin Montin told them this story:
> In old (from the 20s, maybe) books, English schoolchildren used to say
> "Bags I [the whatever]." Is this usage still current?
Very much so. Also `A.Y.` for After You. And `Turn around, touch the
ground, bags not on it` - last person to suit the action to the word
was `it` in tag..
Rhiannon
--
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~rhi ENTP
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Brian J Goggin
On 15 Jun 1998 21:26:37 GMT, r...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk ( Rhiannon Macfie)
wrote:
[...]
>Karin Montin told them this story:
>> In old (from the 20s, maybe) books, English schoolchildren used to say
>> "Bags I [the whatever]." Is this usage still current?
>Very much so. Also `A.Y.` for After You. And `Turn around, touch the
>ground, bags not on it` - last person to suit the action to the word
>was `it` in tag..
"Bags I" is still used in these parts. And, of course, books set in
the 1920s and featuring English schoolchildren are still required
reading.
When there are visitors, FHB.
bjg
Aaron J. Dinkin
In article <01bd9889$0d8e1a00$13ac9a8e@default>, "Karin Montin"
<jext...@ican.net> wrote:
> In old (from the 20s, maybe) books, English schoolchildren used to say
> "Bags I [the whatever]." Is this usage still current?
I've heard it used by someone who was an English schoolchild about fifteen
years ago, but you'll probably want more examples than this.