wowser

Meanings

Noun

• A lout or similar disruptive person.
• One with strong moral views against excessive consumption of alcohol, gambling, pornography, etc., who seeks to promulgate those views.
• Alternative of wowzer

Interjection

• Alternative of wowsers

Related

Similar words

• killjoy, moral crusader, party pooper, prude, spoilsport

Origin

• From UK dialect. In the pro-temperance sense, Australian from early 1900s.
• John Norton, an early enemy of wowsers (temperance sense), claimed it to be an acronym for "We Only Want Social Evils Remedied", but that is likely a folk etymology.
• A story has it that gospellers in the streets of Clunes, Victoria in the 1870s were called rousers but one of the town councillors had a speech impediment and couldn't pronounce his "R"s, thus giving wowser. (Reference: Bill Wannan, Australian Folklore, Lansdowne Press, 1970, reprint 1979 , under "Wowser", page 568.)
• From wow, with the "-ser" added to provide emphasis.