Wojus
Awful. Terrible. Used as a strong informal negative judgement: a wojus meal, a wojus day, a wojus film. Also used as an interjection: 'Oh, wojus!' = oh no, oh dear. Distinctly Irish in tone.
Etymology
Origin contested. Two main readings: (i) a softening of 'odious' through Irish vowel-shifts (odious → wojus); (ii) a contraction or modification of 'Oh, Jesus!' used as an interjection. The Wikipedia HE compendium notes both possibilities without resolving. The Irish-English pronunciation pattern that gives 'wojus' is consistent with the 'odious' derivation. Either way, the word is fully embedded in modern Hiberno-English informal speech.
In a sentence
"The weather's been wojus all week - hasn't stopped raining since Tuesday."
Historical notes
Wojus has expanded in use across the twentieth century from northern and Dublin informal speech into general Hiberno-English. The word sits next to 'cat melodeon' (= awful) in the Ulster vocabulary and next to 'rotten' (= awful, in southern Hiberno-English) in the wider Irish lexicon. Modern Dublin speakers may say 'wojus' for both serious complaint and playful exaggeration: a wojus headache is real; a wojus haircut is just a bad one.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Hiberno-English vocabulary section. · other