[AnonymousBosch]

Some definitions of 'Wowser' for the non-Australians, which has been in common use since 1900 or so:

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The term wowser - surely one of the most impressive and expressive of Australian coinages - is used to express healthy contempt for those who attempt to force their own morality on everyone. The person who abstains from alcohol (for whatever reason) is not thereby a wowser: s/he's just probably very fit. But when s/he tries to force everyone else to do as s/he does, then s/he is a wowser. Or as C.J. Dennis defines the term: 'Wowser: an ineffably pious person who mistakes this world for a penitentiary and himself for a warder'.

and

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A pernickety kind of person, always objecting to everybody else who does not agree with him; he will interfere with the pleasures and enjoyments of others; thinks that he alone has the right conception of right conduct, and a monopoly of the narrow way to paradise....'

This is why I always feel like society just keep marching backwards, not forwards.

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One theory has it that the word 'wowser' comes from the initials of a slogan (a self-justifying wowser one?): We Only Want Social Evils Righted.