Juzgado > Hoosegow

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you?

This is Tammy.

I’m calling from Jacksonville, Florida, actually.

Hi, Tammy.

Welcome to the show.

Hey, Tammy.

What’s going on?

My sister contacted me a while back about this and talking about A Way with Words, I guess.

-huh.

And her father, technically my stepfather, he was a World War II vet, actually.

And he used to tell a lot of funny stories.

And he would always talk about how somebody would end up in the Hooskow.

And at that time, I was fairly young.

I didn’t really know what that was, you know.

And, of course, over time.

But he would always just, it was just a funny word to me, you know.

And he would say, oh, every time we got shore leave, oh, Bill, he would end up in the hoose gal or, you know, something like that.

And he always had a lot of funny stories to tell.

-huh.

So what is a hoose gal?

So a hoose gal is, I guess, the same as ending up in the jail.

So I guess on the ship, he was stationed on a battleship, and I guess they had the brig.

On the battleship, they had the brig there at the jail for the sailors.

But I guess when you’re on shore, it’s in the hooscal.

Yeah.

Didn’t want to end up there.

So your question is, what kind of word is hooscal?

Where did that come from?

Yeah, sort of what is the origin of that?

I don’t know.

Well, it’s a very interesting origin because it goes back to a Spanish word that means to judge.

Juzgar means to judge in Spanish.

And the word for a court in Spanish is juzgado.

And in Mexican Spanish, it sounds like juzgal.

And so it’s a word that we borrowed from Spanish.

Oh, okay.

Oh, that’s interesting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it had a pretty long history then.

Yeah, a very long history.

And now in English, it’s kind of a jokey word in a way.

I mean, exactly the way that you’ve been describing it.

It’s spelled H-O-O-S-E-G-O-W, hoosegow.

And I do associate it with kind of rambunctious, jokey talk about being in jail.

Right, right.

Imagine a courtroom that had like a cell in the corner where the people who are being judged would be put.

Okay, right, right.

Yeah, so there you go.

So, Houskow, we’re spelling H-O-O-S-E-G-O-W, right?

And then Houskado, the Spanish is J-U-Z-G-A-D-O, right?

Houskado?

Mm—

But in some Spanish dialects, like you said, the D is not pronounced, so it sounds like Houskow.

Right.

Correct.

Right.

Now, if I had to try to write that, I would not even have been close to either one of those.

Oh, is it right?

So, stay out of the Houskow.

Yeah, Tammy.

Yeah, that’s it.

Learn your spelling and stay out of the Houskow.

Now that’s your tip for the day.

Thanks, Tammy.

Take care now.

All right.

Thanks, guys.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

Thanks for calling.

Bye.

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