Hezza

Nickname dating from the early 1990s for British Cabinet Minister, Michael Heseltine, later Lord Heseltine (b1933).

In imitation of "Gazza", the widely used eponoym for the English international footballer, Paul Gascoigne (b1967), this was one of several such coinages in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Other notable examples included "Chazza" (Charles, Prince of Wales, b1948), "Prezza" (John Prescott, b1938, British Deputy Prime Minister from 1997) and "Macca" (musician Sir Paul McCartney, b1942, formerly of the Beatles). "Macca" was applied also to Liverpool and Real Madrid footballer, Steve McManaman (b1972) and by the Daily Mirror to Steve McLaren (b1961) following his appointment as manager of the English national football team in May 2006.

Female forms have included "Shezza" for both Gascoigne's former wife, Sheryl, and impresario Sharon Osbourne (b1952), wife of musician "Ozzy" Osbourne, and "Chezza" which has been used in respect of Cherie Booth QC (b1954), wife of Tony Blair, Prime Minister from 1997, and singer Cheryl Tweedy (b1983) of the group Girls Aloud, who became engaged in 2005 to footballer Ashley Cole.

The Oxford '-er'

Abbreviations of the "Hezza" and "Gazza" variety may owe something to the Oxford '-er', prevalent at Oxford University from c1875 and borrowed from Rugby School, which gave rise to such slang as soccer (for Association football), rugger (for Rugby football) and even footer (for football). This form was famously perpetuated on Test Match Special, the BBC radio programme (from 1957) devoted to test cricket, by Brian Johnston (1912-94), ex-Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, who bestowed nicknames on his fellow commentators: thus, "Blowers" for Henry Blofeld, "Aggers" (Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent and former Leicestershire and England bowler) and "Bearders" (scorer Bill Frindall, known also as the "Bearded Wonder"). Johnston himself was known as "Johnners". Following his death in 1994, the satirical magazine Private Eye published a cartoon of Johnston at the gates of heaven with the caption, "Morning, Godders".

Other specificially Oxonian examples of the '-er' include the Radders (Radcliffe Camera), Jaggers (Jesus College, Oxford) and, by adaptation, Wuggins (Worcester College) (see Eric Partridge, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, revised 1961).