Wazzu

English

Etymology

From the university’s initials, WSU. Compare Mizzou.

Proper noun

Wazzu

1. (colloquial) Washington State University.
   • 1979, “Tom Scott – Jazzman”, in Chinook, Pullman, Wash.: Washington State University, →OCLC, page 104, column 1:

     A favorite of WSU students, Scott joked with his fans about being back here at Wazzu and how much he enjoyed the Palouse.

   • 2008, Alexander Kuo, “Regrets Only”, in White Jade and Other Stories, Le Grande, Ore.: Wordcraft of Oregon, →ISBN, page 29:

     Seymour thought about suggesting that Allan should be designated the official FT, the Food Tester, and suspected he would prefer fried chicken, Jell-O® and Kool-Aid® at a Mormon picnic, but looked down and kept his mouth shut instead, in this scene he thought he had left behind when he got his diploma and naval gold bars from Wazzu last year. But no, it was reappearing now as something that’d crawled out of a nightmare that would not go away.

   • 2011, Paul Allen, “Wazzu”, in Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, New York, N.Y.: Portfolio, →ISBN, page 65:

     I offered a word to the wise: “You know. Bill, when you get to Harvard, there are going to be some people a lot better in math than you are.” […] I was decent in math and Bill was brilliant, but I spoke from experience at Wazzu. One day I watched a professor cover the blackboard with a maze of partial differential equations, and they might as well have been hieroglyphics from the Second Dynasty.