Wagon
An unpleasant or obnoxious woman. Strictly pejorative. Distinct entirely from the vehicle sense: in Hiberno-English the noun 'wagon' applied to a person carries no other meaning. Almost always preceded by 'the' or 'an aul' (= an old) - 'the wagon', 'an aul wagon'.
Etymology
The shift from the vehicle to the insult is contested - one reading takes it as a derogatory and jocular reference to a woman being 'ridden'. The Hiberno-English use is established in twentieth-century Dublin and wider Irish English; Roddy Doyle uses it in The Snapper (1990): 'It's prob'ly cos Daddy called her a wagon at tha' meetin'.'
In a sentence
"She's an aul wagon - never says hello and complains about the bin men every Thursday."
Historical notes
Wagon is one of the harshest single-word terms a Hiberno-English speaker reaches for about another woman. It carries an old-fashioned coarseness that newer insults have softened around but not displaced. The construction 'an aul wagon' (= an old wagon) is the most common form and is gender-locked: men do not get called wagons. The word's strength keeps it out of polite company; it has not travelled into general British or American English and shows no sign of doing so.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry wagon n. (slang derogatory sense). · dictionary
- Doyle, Roddy. The Snapper (1990). · academic