As a verb, it means "to fuck up"
As a noun, it means "a person who fucks up".
Originally from the second book in cyberpunk writer William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, Count Zero (1986), "wilson" is first mentioned in the chapter titled Bobby Pulls
A Wilson.
It is conveniently explained later in the book during a conversation between Bobby and
The Finn in the chapter titled
Legba, that reads as follows:
'The Finn looked at him, blankly. "A what?"
'"
A wilson. A fuck-up. It's
hotdogger talk, I guess..." Did it again. Shit.
'The Finn gave him a very strange look. "Jesus. That's your word for it, huh? Christ, I KNOW the guy..."
'"Who?"
'"
Bodine Wilson," he said. "First guy I ever knew wound up as a figure of speech."
'"Was he stupid?" Bobby asked, immediately regretting it.
'"Stupid? Shit, no, he was smart as hell." The Finn stubbed his ashtray out in a cracked ceramic Campari ashtray. "Just a
total fuck-up, was all. He worked with the Dixie Flatline once..." The bloodshot yellow eyes grew distant.'
From Stephen
Donaldson's book,
Snow Crash:
'A number of the Kouriers are taking advantage of this sound track to style up and down the banks of the river; only
Vitaly, live, can get their adrenaline pumping hard enough to enable them to skate a sharp bank at eighty miles per hour plus without doing a wilson into the crete.'
