Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Vin21]

You are a pistol.
You are a waspy guy.

What kind of person are they?
Thanks!

[Soymilk]

Usually someone hot tempered or easily irritated

[bud]

To me, a pistol is someone who has a very unique sense of humor. He/she is always making others crack up (laugh hard).

A WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is an American who would be called waspy. It is a somewhat derisive term for a white man who is regarded as dominant in society/politics. To use the term is to imply that they have their power only bacause they were lucky enough to be born into the most priveledged class in the U.S.

[advoca]

There are may meanings to the word pistol
My dictionary says:
pistol n. A high-energy, vibrant person, someone who is hot stuff (something or someone of great excellence or interest)

Pistol is also a slang word for p e n i s.

When we come to the word waspy it unleashes a fascinating fountain of information of interest to a learner of English. Waspy means like a wasp. A wasp is any of numerous stinging insects which have slender black-and-yellow striped bodies and narrow waists, belonging to the same order as bees and ants, and found worldwide. So if a girl is wearing a dress that is striped black and yellow the dress could be described as being waspy.

In Dublin the uniforms of the traffic wardens were in black and yellow so they became knows as wasps.

But there are other examples of the use of the four letters that make up wasp. For example, during World War 2 female civilian pilots were used to ferry planes from construction plants in order to free male pilots for combat. They were a courageous and patriotic group who have been granted veteran status. Originally they were the Women's Auxilliary Ferrying Squadron--WAFS---and the Women's Flying Training Detachment, dually created Sep 1942 within the Air Transport Command. There is a museum in Texas devoted to the memory of these courageous women It is dedicated to �educating and inspiring every generation with the history of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the first women in history to fly American's military aircraft, and who forever changed the role of women in aviation!�

But the American Department of Defense had a war air service program, and this became known as WASP.

In Net lingo, WASP is an acronym for Wireless Application Service Providers.

But while on the subject of the net there is a web standards project to arrange for international standards. The acronym for this should be WSP but to make it trip off the tongue better it became known as WaSP.

But Bud is quite correct. In America WASP (with capital letters to distinguish it from the insect) is acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. (This is a term hardly known in Britain, incidentally.) The term WASP is often used in a disparaging way to refer to a person of Northern European and especially British ancestry and of Protestant Religion background; especially : a member of the dominant and the most privileged class of people in the U.S.

But many Americans use the acronym WASPy rather than WASP. There was recently a widely circulated article in the magazine Forward, with the heading:

Once-WASPy USC Names First Jew as Board Chair
By Ruth Andrew Ellenson

LOS ANGELES � The University of Southern California, once considered a bastion of WASP elitism, has capped a decade of transformation by naming its first Jewish board chairman, Stanley Gold.

And incidentally, there is a web page named WASPY L.I. GAL and this declares that it is a place for waspy girls to chat and talk about their waspy lifestyle. It says, �Open to all! Chat away ladies.�

But we ain�t finished yet. The Encarta encyclopaedia declares that Waspy is an offensive term for a white person.

And many dictionaries say that waspy is the same as waspish. But since a wasp has a sting in the tail, in the UK the term waspish (sometimes waspy) is used to describe someone who often makes stinging remarks and says cruel things in an angry way. This is usually used to describe the behaviour of certain women.

And since wasps have a very narrow waist females who have very tiny waists, perhaps created by wearing tight corsets, are sometimes described as waspy-waisted.

Just thought you, and any other learner of English, might find this trivia of interest.

[Blossom]

[Vin21]

Thanks Soymilk,bud and Blossom.
And thank advoca for giving a very comprehensive and fascinating explanation of the word.