Revised as of
26 Nov 2022
Sooo, this post originally started out as hoes vs hose, and I’m thinking garden. Then research turned up ho. Okay, it didn’t exactly fit in with the whole garden-spring theme, but it is a legit word the plural of which fits the parameters, especially as a trio of heterographs (a subset of homophone).
And anyway, who says hos can’t garden and use hoes and hoses?
The hoe has been around for millennia and has been very useful for agricultural purposes.
These days we tend to think hooker when someone refers to a woman as a ho — and there is NO neutral connotation for ho. I’ve always had a problem with it in terms of pluralizing ho. Yes, I also have a major problem of anyone using it to refer to women! So back to pluralizing . . . Do you use an apostrophe, add an es, or just tag it with an s? Turns out they’re all legit, although the New York Times is using ho’s less frequently these days. An AP story (on the San Francisco Chronicle site), CNN, NewsBusters, and Media Matters use hos while the New York Post and Chicago Tribune use hoes (Bechtel).
On a positive note, I did enjoy Bechtel’s reminder that land ho! is another usage.
Now, hose is much more complex than I’d thought, lol. Sure, hose is pretty basic as a flexible tube that conveys liquids. But, the slang . . .! Whoo-wee!
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Hoes | Hos | Hose |
|---|---|---|
Seng (Ginseng) Hoes by Lyntha Scott Eiler and is in the public domain, via Picryl. |
Whores in Austin by Ken is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — They’s hos! |
Blue Rubber Hose on the Grass by Nenad Stojkovic is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Morpheme: hoe
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: hoes Third person present verb: hoes |
Plural for ho
Noun Alternative spelling: hoe Plural: hos, hoes |
Noun; Verb, transitive
Plural for the noun: hoses Third person present verb: hoses |
| Noun: A long-handled implement having a thin, flat blade usually set transversely, used to break up the surface of the ground, destroy weeds, etc. Any of various implements of similar form, as for mixing plaster or mortar Verb, intransitive: Verb, transitive: |
[Slang; derogatory; offensive] A prostitute
[Offensive; derogatory] Girlfriend |
Noun: A flexible tube conveying water, used chiefly for watering plants, washing cars, and in firefighting [Formal] Hosiery
[Treated as plural noun] Stockings, socks, and tights
[British dialect] A sheath, or sheathing part, as that enclosing a kernel of grain Verb, transitive: [Slang] To seriously injure or kill [Slang] To break, ruin, or destroy [Slang] To cheat, trick, or take advantage of [Slang] To defeat decisively [Slang] To reject [Slang] To have sexual intercourse, especially in casual circumstances [Slang; chiefly military; sometimes followed by down] To attack or assault (an area) in order to gain control quickly |
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: It’s weeding season, honey. I’ll get the hoe. It’s a long row to hoe. In a sandy field of half-grown cassava plants, a group of 30 farmers were fighting a plague of locusts with long-handled weeding hoes and improvised brushes. Nah, I’ll use that mortar hoe to mix up the cement. Verb, intransitive: She hoes every morning. He came out under the speck of open sky to weed and hoe among the fraternity of beans and squashes. Rich always take a shower after he hoes in the garden. Verb, transitive: Joe hoes a nice eight-inch trench. The idea is that after harvesting, you will not need to plow or hoe the land for the new planting season. |
This why you can’t get my number, you a ho!
They are such hos. Shut up, hos! |
Noun: We’ll need new sprinkler hoses. Damn, I snagged my hose. No, no, no! The chorus girls’ fishnet hose is supposed to be a metallic silver. Doublets of the 14th and 15th centuries were generally hip-length, sometimes shorter, worn over the shirt and hose, with a houppelande or other form of overgown. Verb, transitive: Firefighters spent hours hosing the flaming building. Small investors took a hosing in the recent stock-market decline. I wouldn’t hose you about a thing like that! Thanks for hosing my computer. No, my son doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he keeps teasing his mom by telling her that he’s hosing some girl. Let’s hose these assholes! |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: hoelike Noun: backhoe, hoecake, hoedown, hoer |
Noun: ho, hoebag, hoecake | Adjective: hoseless, hoselike, unhosed Noun: hosepipe |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Middle English from the Old French houe is of Germanic origin and related to the German Haue, also to hew. | This was first recorded in 1965–70, representing a dialectal or Black English pronunciation of whore. | Old English hosa is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch hoos meaning stocking, water hose, and the German Hosen for trousers.
Originally singular, the term denoted a covering for the leg, sometimes including the foot, but sometimes reaching only to the ankle. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves?
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Resources for Hoes vs Hos vs Hose
Apple Dictionary.com
Bechtel, Andy. “Ho Hoe Ho’s.” The Editor’s Desk. 9 Apr 2007. <https://editdesk.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/ho-hoe-hos/>.
Dictionary.com: hoe
Online Slang Dictionary: hose
Shabunc. “Is ‘Ho’/’Hoe’ Basically an Equivalent of ‘Whore’ Which Differs Only Stylistically?” English StackExchange. 25 Sep 2019. Web. 4 Apr 2021. <https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/513653/is-ho-hoe-basically-an-equivalent-of-whore-which-differs-only-stylisticall>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Hose Reel Background by Bernetta Tinkham is under the CC0 license, via Pixy. The hose was manipulated in Photoshop into a dress put on Woman in an Orange Sleeveless Shirt, which is in the public domain, via Piqsels. Keeping her company is Layla Outfit by Masoom @ Whore Couture, France, by Heidi Rewell is under the CC BY 2.0 license and Outdoor Hose Reel by Kolforn is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The last two are via Wikimedia Commons.
