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Joined: Mar 2005
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Mar 2005
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Father Steve quoted from my website ( http://ozlip.lexigame.com/ozdict.html#hoon), about hoon, but let me expand on that. Australian dictionaries give a few meanings for hoon, apart from the reckless driver. The oldest sense seems to be a procurer of prostitutes. This meaning is labelled "dated" by the Australian Oxford. (Another Australian slang term, "bludger", has a similar original meaning, but now usually means a cadger , or parasite of any kind.) Other meanings for hoon given by G A Wilkes in his Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms are "general term of insult", "anyone given to loutish behaviour" and "a thug, a heavy (not criminal)", as in "security hoon". It probably is true that the most commonly used meaning now is "someone driving fast and aggressively". "Hooning around" is also used for such behaviour - Wilkes quotes a newspaper article about "rogue jet ski riders" who were "hooning around inside the flags at patrolled swimming beaches". I have not seen any explanation of the origin of the word.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
welcome, Alan!
> I have not seen any explanation of the origin of the word.
I'm still thinking hood(lum) + goon...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Welcome, Alan. It is a pleasure to hear from someone from whose website I found an answer to a Board question.
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> It is a pleasure to hear from someone from whose website I found an answer to a Board question.
Thanks for the nice snug mantle, Your Honour.
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 5
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Mar 2005
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>Welcome, Alan. It is a pleasure to hear from someone from whose website I found an answer to a Board question.
Thanks to Google, it's pretty easy to become an expert on something these days, provided the topic's obscure enough. Recently I asked some friends what they knew about the Australian word "piff". We discussed it for a while, and the next day one of my friends sent me a link to a Web page that had a definition of the word. Sure enough, it was my own site!
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Hi Alan, nice to see a fellow linguaphile on Board. How does it feel to have somebody quote you to yourself? 
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 5
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Mar 2005
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>How does it feel to have somebody quote you to yourself?
Well of course it's always pleasing to read something that's clever, well-informed and witty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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something that's clever, well-informed and witty
Oh, you'll fit in here real good.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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something that's clever, well-informed and witty
Oh, you'll fit in here real good. Oh, yeah! Welcome aBoard, Alan!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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