noun a spoilsport of the worst kind; a moral crusader; a prude. Claimed by John Norton, editor of the Sydney Truth (1891–1916) as his own coinage and an acronym from the phrase 'we only want social evils remedied', a supposed catchcry of 'the wowsers'. This story has sadly never been corroborated, and its derivation must be sought elsewhere. The Australian National Dictionary suggests British dialect wow (to howl or bark as a dog, to complain), which seems to fit well, but one correspondent to the Truth in 1910, after denying the word as Norton's invention, goes on to say 'a false sense of public decency forbids the publication of the derivation and true meaning', which suggests some profane origin AUSTRALIA, 1900