Nobody knows where or when this word originated but several plausible explanations date back to Yorkshire and the 1960's including that it is a corruption of the french "
oiseau" meaning "bird" as used in the phrase ouiseau head.
My favourite is that it was used on a local football field when a particularly
disenchanted supporter shouted that the referee was a "wazzock" it being a portmanteau word made up from "wanker" and "pillock" - but surely that would be a "wannock" "wallcok" (which doesn't work).
Mike
Harding (ex-comedian, now radio 2 presenter)says he used the word as early as 1976 in his surreal story, "
Beaky Knucklewart",recorded on his "
One Man Show" album and also in "When the Martians Landed in Huddersfield" but Harding says he heard it from others probably in Barnsley in the late 1960's. This pre-dates Tony Capstick by 5 years.