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.'