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.'