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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (Gordon A. Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: ``bozo'' -- an etymology
Message-ID: <315@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Oct-84 02:25:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.315
Posted: Wed Oct  3 02:25:11 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 05:53:48 EDT
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Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
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... so I was just flipping pages thru the dictionary, and came
across ``bozo'' (I was in the `B's then); the given etymology
was "unknown".  Imagine so popular a word and Websters says it doesn't
know where it came from?

After looking thru two language books I found an etymology for
``bozo'':  "from Sp. dial. `boso' (from `vosotros') = you (pl.),
which resembles a direct address"  [such as `you guys'].
The definition given is "A man; fellow; guy; esp. a large, rough
man with more brawn than brains."  (this is from 1960).

The earliest written reference noted in this "Dictionary of
American Slang" (Wentworth & Flexner) is in 1934.  During WWII
it was popular in the service; in fact, definition 2 here is
"An army recruit".

It isn't clear how ``Bozo the Clown'' got his name out of all
this.
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett			...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,nsc}!amdahl!gam

[ The opinons expressed in this article are completely fictious.  Any
  similarity between these opinions and the opinions of any persons
  living or dead is entirely coincidental. ]