beezer (nose)

[Shandol]

Just encountered the term "beezer" being used in the sense of "nose" in one of Wodehouse's novels entitled "Jeeves in the Offing",

She had an ink spot on her nose, the result of working on her novel of suspense. It is virtually impossible to write a novel of suspense without getting a certain amount of ink on the beezer. Ask Agatha Christie or anyone.

P. G. Wodehouse - Jeeves in the Offing, chapter V

Does it ring any bells for you? Did you ever come across it in the wild?

 

[owlman5]

Does it ring any bells for you?

Yes.

Did you ever come across it in the wild?

I have heard it a few times*. I have also run across it in a few books before.

*But I haven't heard it recently. Beezer strikes me as a comical and somewhat dated word.

 

[Egmont]

I don't recall seeing it. (I read most of the Jeeves books decades ago, but I don't remember every word in them.) However, I have no trouble understanding it in context. People often invent words for body parts.

That said, Wodehouse wrote in the fountain pen era. Ink on the beezer is less likely if an author uses a ballpoint pen, difficult to imagine with a typewriter, and quite impossible with a word processor.

 

[Keith Bradford]

Damon Runyan was fond of the word, as in "It seems that Hymie hits Brick a clout on the beezer that stretches Brick out, and it seems that Hymie hits Brick this blow because..." and "So Eddie goes away, as he does not desire a bust in the beezer...". (Early 1930s.) I've never heard it spoken so far as I can remember.

 

[Myridon]

difficult to imagine with a typewriter

You must have had a typewriter that had the ribbon in a cartridge. I've had typewriter ink on my hands and face many times from handling the ribbon, not to mention carbon paper.

 

[Loob]

The only bell beezer rings with me is the comic The Beezer: The Beezer - Wikipedia.

And I assume the name of that came from one of the following meanings of the word, rather than the "nose" meaning:
- [Apparently originally Scottish] A smart fellow (quot. 1914); a person, a ‘chap’.
- British colloquial (chiefly Scottish). An impressive or large example of its kind.
(source:OED)

 

[Datadox]

The word is used to mean "nose" in the Katzenjammer Kids page published on January 28, 1940: "How aboudt a svell red toopy, Captain, to match der beezer?" [How about a swell red toupee, Captain, to match the beezer?].

 

[Chasint]

As a Brit, I have never heard it used to refer to the nose. A quick online search seems to indicate that it is outdated and/or regional.

 

[LVRBC]

This is not in current use in the US anywhere I have ever been. I do recognize it from books, mostly written well over half a century ago. Wodehouse is using it for comic effect, since the usual context is not literary but rather along the lines of "Watch it bub, or I'll give you a poke in the beezer."