bogan

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
8
Words With Friends
11
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/ˈboʊɡən/

Definition of bogan

10 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (Australia, New-Zealand, slang)An unsophisticated person from a working class background.
    “Bogans were Lockie's least favorite kind of people.”
    “The Reservoir I grew up in was populated by menacing, toothless Torana-driving bogans, crushed menthol-smoking pensioners and toddlers who swore.”
See all 10 definitions

noun

  1. (Australia, New-Zealand, slang)An unsophisticated person from a working class background.
    “Bogans were Lockie's least favorite kind of people.”
    “The Reservoir I grew up in was populated by menacing, toothless Torana-driving bogans, crushed menthol-smoking pensioners and toddlers who swore.”
  2. (New-Zealand, derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur)An Anglo-Celtic member of a lower socioeconomic group, stereotypically classified as wearing black jumpers or black concert T-shirts.
  3. (New-Zealand, derogatory, slang)A petrolhead.
  4. (Canada, Maine)Any narrow water or creek, particularly a tranquil backwater.
    “All around the shores of the narrow bogan crowded the beasts, watching with wide, fascinated eyes the flight and fall of these disastrous missiles.”
  5. (Canada, North, Ontario, Western, derogatory, offensive, slang)An indigenous person.
    “Negative Stereotypes: Indians, natives, bogans, nates, […]”
    “Greg Quachegan, a teacher at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, was walking with his young daughters when someone yelled, “Bogans,” at them. He has no idea what it means, but it’s a slur aboriginal people hear often.”
    “"There's young men, on the weekends, they will throw beer bottles at you and yell out 'bogan' or 'squaw' or 'whore,'" said Deanne Hupfield, who grew up in Thunder Bay.”
    “Is that the same blue truck that is throwing rocks out the passenger window and screaming at natives calling them bogans walking on the street?”

verb

  1. (derogatory, rare)To act like a bogan.
    “If you're coming in to cause trouble, don't bother […] bogan it up at home.”

name

  1. A river of central to northern New South Wales, Australia, a tributary to the Darling.
  2. A local government area in New South Wales, Australia; in full, Bogan Shire.
  3. A locality in the Warren council area, northern New South Wales, Australia.
  4. A surname from Irish.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Unknown. First appeared in Australia in the 1980s. Possibly in reference to supposedly unsophisticated people from remote outback places such as the Bogan River or Bogan Gate (cf. dubbo from Dubbo).

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