Lucky Dip

Useful Information No.10: Wowser!

“Wow!” When you hear that, you know that someone has been pleasurably surprised.

It falls to the lot of celebrities to be pleasurably surprised on many occasions. Indeed, on so many occasions that they are having to resort to a superlative expression to express their delight. What could be more appropriate than:

“Wowser!”

But hang on a sec: the term ‘wowser’ is already in use. It is defined in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as: a puritanical person, in particular a teetotaller or person opposed to alcohol.

Is this a reason for aiming to dissuade celebrities from exclaiming “Wowser!” when they are confronted with a phenomenon that they judge to be pleasantly unusual (or ‘incredible’, as the saying goes)? It might be. But you may be sure that they will not be dissuaded. Expect the first recorded definition of ‘wowser’ to be relegated to second place in the next edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.