HOGWASH

[Dr. Goodword]

• hogwash •

Pronunciation: hahg-wahsh • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. Hog slops, swill, table waste fed to hogs. 2. Anything we drink that is of extremely poor quality. 3. Bull-puckey, bunkum, codswallop, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, horse feathers, hooey, hokum, malarkey, poppycock, tommy-rot, tripe, whang-doodle, or common, everyday windbaggery.

Notes: Before waste disposals, people used to feed to their pigs what they now throw down the waste disposal. (I'm not sure what people who didn't raise hogs did with theirs.) I can recall at my grandparents' house the slop bucket, whereto we scraped the scraps of every meal. Water was always added so the pigs wouldn't choke on the chunks.

In Play: I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: the superabundance of synonyms for this concept must reflect a prevalence of nonsense in our society. We generally associate this word with politics: "I don't believe a word of all that hogwash coming out of Washington." Don't forget that this word can also be used in reference to what we drink: "Chick Pease thinks skimmed milk is nothing but hogwash."

Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously a compound noun made up of hog + wash. The origin of the first word in this compound is difficult to trace. Late Latin hoggus seems to have been borrowed from English rather than the other way around! The origin of wash is a bit clearer. It comes from the same source as water, Proto-Indo-European wed- "wet, water". You have probably already guessed that the PIE word also underlies English wet, but did you know that whiskey comes from the same source? This word was originally uisce "water" in Old Irish. In fact, the same holds true of vodka: it comes from Russian voda "water", which originated in wed-, too. (It's no hogwash that we are grateful to Lynne Flake for suggesting today's funny little Good Word.)

[Pattie]

My husband's family, from the north of England, have the following idiosyncratic use for hogwash (albeit with slightly different spelling): many years ago, there was a boy of their acquaintance called Maurice Hogg. Now, Maurice had the reputation for being not very clean (a Tyneside version of Charles Schultze's Pigpen), so when the children in my husband's family were perceived to have skimped on their ablutions, they were said to have had a Maurice Hoggwash. We still use the term. Thank you Maurice!

[LukeJavan8]

Cute!
Much like, I suppose, a term here - "French Shower",
meaning splash on cologne or body spray.

[Perry Lassiter]

There is also such a thing as a "spit bath," where one merely grabs a washcloth, dampens it, and wipes under one's arms, neck, and perhaps a few other places. A quick touchup when you don't hqve time for a bath or shower.

I've hear the word spit replaced with a college name, both of colleges the person attended or its chief rival. Dad was a Tulane grad, who called it a Tulane-bath, possibly because college students often think they're in a hurry. I've heard Baylor students call it an Aggie bath for obvious reasons.

[Slava]

There is also the sponge bath. Of which I've taken many. Especially when living in Russia.

Hot water is provided by the State. They actually have massive factories just to boil water. Over the summer months, they get shut down for 3 weeks. Sometimes a bit too early or late. Unless you like taking cold showers, you heat up pans of water and use that.

No hogwash!

[MTC]

Right, but for the truly hard core there's a "submarine shower" which consists of washing the exposed body parts, spraying them with Right Guard, cocking the white hat at just the right jaunty angle, then bounding down the gangplank on liberty. And that's not bilge water mates, er, hogwash, that is.

[Philip Hudson]

Pardon my indelicacy, but in redneck a whore's bath is the same as a sponge bath or a spit bath.

I have seen mothers give their children literal spit baths by spitting on handkerchiefs and wiping their little darlings' faces. Mary Poppins was keen on saying "spit spot" but I don't know why.

These words fall farther from hogwash than does bilge water, a word that MTC mentioned. The word bilge water makes me think of my childhood desire to go to sea. MTC actually did it.

[Perry Lassiter]

I suspect our Brit cousins might illumine us with comments on "spit spot." Any takers?

[call_copse]

Happy to oblige - as far as I know it is simply a general chivvy along. I do a fair bit of chivvying, having small children, and this does remind me of my grandmother, who I would imagine may have used it prior to Julie Andrews bringing Mary Poppins to life. I may adopt this as an alternative to 'chop chop' when trying vainly to introduce alacrity to the movements of my offspring.

[MTC]

Chivvying! Thanks for that, a word whose time at the definitional altar has finally arrived:

chiv·vy or chiv·y (chv)
v. chiv·vied or chiv·ied, chiv·vy·ing or chiv·y·ing, chiv·vies or chiv·ies
v.tr.
1. To vex or harass with petty attacks: political opponents who chivvied the senator.
2. To maneuver or secure gradually: "had spent two weeks chivvying this division toward combat readiness" (Tom Clancy).
v.intr.
To scurry.
n. pl. chiv·vies or chiv·ies
1. A hunt or chase.
2. A hunting cry.
[Variant of chevy, a hunt, hunting cry, from Chevy Chase, title of a ballad about a border skirmish, from Cheviot Chase, a large unenclosed hunting tract in the Cheviot Hills.]

There is a tony (another Britishism) neighborhood in L.A. called Cheviot Hills. I wonder how many residents know the developer's inspiration? How many are chivvied by a high mortgage?

[Perry Lassiter]

Chivvy: short for chivrolet?

[call_copse]

Chivy is a pretty good informal usage sort of word. None of those definitions really encompass the 'persuade towards movement' I understand although I guess harass is sort of there.

For instance while getting the boy equipped with coat and hat this morning the girl wandered off removing her hat and examined some sticks, which sticks I was given to understand I should be delighted to review. Repeated remonstrations to enter our vehicle at this juncture so I may take them on to school and then proceed to work constitute chivvying. Whilst it does amount to harassment it is a task always to be undertaken in good humour lest those chivvied become disconsolate (thus taking even longer to be mobilised).

[bamaboy56]

I remember years ago while living in Chile having to take a sponge bath/spit bath, etc. due to the shortage of hot water. Water was warmed by always inadequately sized gas water heaters. You either took a VERY quick shower or you were forced to take a cold shower (something I abhor). If you were the second or third one in line to get into the bathroom, you definitely had no warm water, thus sponge baths using water heated on the stove was necessary. I like long, hot showers myself.