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From: steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: ``bozo'' -- an etymology
Message-ID: <175@scc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Oct-84 13:11:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: scc.175
Posted: Wed Oct  3 13:11:20 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Oct-84 20:37:51 EDT
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Organization: Personetics, Inc. - Santa Cruz, Calif.
Lines: 30

> 
> 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).
> 
Very strange - my "American Heritage Dictionary" says

	Possibly from Spanish *bozo*, "down growing on the cheeks of
        youths."

The "University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary" has "bozo", but not
"boso" or anything close.  Of course, it is probably dialectal and
inflected, so that does not mean anything.

The American Heritage Dictionary is newer and has much greater
attention to etomology than Webster's.   It has a dictionary 
of Proto Indo-European in the back and when possible gives
the original Indo-European word that a word is a reflex of.


-- 
scc!steiny
Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382
109 Torrey Pine Terr.
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
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