Talk:tosser

More generic meaning pointed to by HP movie

At the beginning of the 6th Harry Potter movie (the Half Blood Prince) Harry Potter refers to himself as a "tosser". I can hardly believe either of the two meanings mentioned here apply.

Perhaps a native speaker (from London?) can eleborate.

Nb. I have no recollection of this word being used in the book.

 Done. Possibly they need to be extended slightly into the figurative, but I actually think the definitions kinda fit it. It's implied he's supposed to be an uninteresting, not-doing-anything-good-or-notable, loser kinda guy; probably originationg from the masturbating part. It's quite common for words to expand into new territoty and get used like this.

N Not done. Personally I think we should include the Harry Potter quote on this page. I don't remember it from the book either, but I'm not sure, but that doesn't matter anyway. I first heard it in the HBP movie, and haven't heard it in many other places either, but I think it may be one of those quite versatile words that don't necessarily mean much by itself or have the same meaning in every context, such as perhaps words like "prat", "prick", "turn", "shit", "thing", "boy", "cool", "gay" and "loser".

Oh, and I'm not even a native speaker, let alone a Londoner, but I still think my points are valid. Your request for a Londoner is still valid. Someone should take a look into this, expand a little and clean up and clarify, nothing much, but just to make sure it's up to snuff. - Bjørnar Munkerud, the 4. of January 2013, HP fan

Generic definition found and entered. No quote added because the originator of the comment should research (source) and supply this. 71.239.87.100 05:04, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Muggle girl: Harry Potter. Who's Harry Potter?

Harry Potter: No one, bit of a tosser really. (Wikiquote)

Several "answers" websites have question about the meaning of this quote. (Just Google it.)

I'm not immersed in British English. Looking only at the word, I could parse "tosser" thus: "Toss" basically means "throw" - or "throw away" or "throw out". A "tosser" could be "someone you would throw away" - or "get rid of" or "discard" (v) or maybe "cast out" or "reject" (v). A "reject" (n) can be "something that is rejected" and, in American slang for sure, "an unpopular person" - someone you don't want to hang around with; an "outcast" (someone who was thrown out/pushed out/kicked out). So I am tempted to translate "tosser" to American English as "reject". ("Outcast" is a synonym but too formal. "Loser" is close, but has other connotations.)

Or, maybe he meant "wanker" less like "jerk-off" and more like "jerk" (where it's implicit but less out-there), in the sense of "idiot". Then I'd translate it "jerk" or "idiot". -A876 (talk) 23:41, 23 January 2019 (UTC)