Hoosgow

Word of the Day for Thursday, October 3, 2013

Hoosgow \HOOS-gou\, noun:

Slang. a jail.

“You told Vera that Carl Webster dropped you off here. This policeman who wants to put me in the hoosgow.”
-- Elmore Leonard, Up in Honey's Room, 2007

"...I got on his tail when they sprung him yesterday noon. He went from the hoosgow to a hotel on Kearny Street and got himself a room."
-- Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, 1929

Hoosgow is likely a mispronunciation of the Mexican Spanish juzgao meaning "tribunal, court." This ultimately comes from the Latin judicare meaning "to judge."

 

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