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wan

Maybe this helps (she is describing that girl):

I thought there might have been some misunderstanding, that my father was obliged to straighten out with further information about the girl and her messy ways, and the length of her Saturday-night skirt.

Thanks again nzfauna.
Do you thing it may be "woman"? This is an Irish book and I've already found that:

Wan, yer, adj.: That woman

http://homepage.eircom.net/~nobyrne/a-zcompact.htm#W

It make sense, isn't it? doesn't it?

Thanks.

What the dictionary is saying is "Yer wan" = that woman.

It seems to me to be an attempt to indicate the pronunciation of "your one" in a Dublin accent.

Further up they have "Aul wan" = old person, i.e. old one.
and "E'erawan" = anyone
I have read discussion about the "wan" in Karavostassis' thread and it seems to me that it ended up with some uncertainty. I would like to share my point of view and add it as an argument to the previous.
This is from “The Gathering” by Anne Enright
(Chapter 25, page 170).

Context: Liam has a girl-friend Nataly, who wears rather a short skirt on Saturday nights. Liam's sister Veronica who is very close to him is a little jealous of her. At night of Liam's arrest (or maybe not long before it) Nataly "was weepy and shouting at the corner of the road."
Veronica asks Liam about the cause of his arrest: «Is it because of that wan?»

Long ago whiteness, paleness of a woman’s skin considered beautiful. The traces of such an opinion you can find in modern English where fair means both light (about complexion) and beautiful. To look good and pale prostitutes made their faces up with ceruse more than others. You can find traces of this custom in Russian too. There is an indecent and abusive word meaning slut in modern Russian. In ancient Russian it was spelled and pronounced differently than today and probably was not so abusive and indecent. Its ancient spelling clearly shows that it originates from the word "бледный" (pale). Probably the same is in Irish English.
This is an argument in favour of the notion that "wan" is a synonim for "slut".
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Hi Alex

I'm not aware of "wan" being anything other than an adjective in English. I've never seen it used as a synonym for a sex worker. Your theory is interesting, but I'm not convinced. "Wan" implies unhealthy, rather than attractive, paleness (at least in the stricty correct meaning of the word).
It's possible "wan" could be a phonetic representation of the word 'one'. I've never seen 'wan' (with the meaning of "pale") used as a noun either.

Edited to add: It looks like it's Irish slang. It's in Urban Dictionary:

7. wan Term used in Ireland to denote disrespect.
Look at this wan, what a bleydin' who-or!


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wan
It's possible "wan" could be a phonetic representation of the word 'one'. I've never seen 'wan' used as a noun either.

Absolutely, if the characters are speaking Scots 👁 Big Grin :D
it's spot on - but I considered, and rejected that possibility because it seemed likely in what little I knew about the context.

But it seems the protaganists are Irish, so it's not a completely outlandish theory (although I'm not aware of "wan" being a phonetic representation of an Irish pronunciation of "one").

(EDIT: I was typing this while Franzi aded his own edit - looks like the Irish theory is spot on)
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It looks to me very like wan=one.

The usage from the Urban Dictionary fails to explain that in the example given the quote could be written as:
Look at this one! What a bleeding whore!

Wan/one carries no additional meaning - wan directly means one.
The sense of disrespect referred to comes from the way the term is used. It is not inherent in the term.

It's possible, of course, that there is more to it in Anne Enright's version.
An argument against the theory of ‘wan’ being phonetic representation of the word 'one': the word ‘wan’ is used only once in the novel in the direct speech by the heroine-narrator. So it is not in her custom to say ‘wan’ instead of ‘one’. .
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