Day: March 11, 2014

Wacky Word Wednesday: Hornswoggle

There’s mystery surrounding this week’s wacky word. Despite a listing in Peter Watts’s 1977 reference book A Dictionary of the Old West – and an almost plausible explanation for its etymology – the word hornswoggle remains unexplained.

This word should be immediately recognisable as an American colloquialism, though it is listed in the Macquarie Dictionary also. It means “to deceive or con”, and the phrase “I’ll be hornswoggled” can also be an exclamation of amazement. It first appeared in print around 1829 and has remained popular in the US. (Even the World Wrestling Entertainment has its own Hornswoggle, a diminutive and popular wrestling champion.)

In 1920 hornswoggle popped up in PG Wodehouse’s Little Warrior.

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Podcast: So You Want to be a Writer
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Ep 1 Meet Graeme Simsion author of ‘The Rosie Project’

Click play below to listen to the podcast. You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher Radio. Or add the podcast RSS feed manually to your favourite podcast app. So you want to be a writer is a weekly podcast from Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait. Valerie is

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