Bogan - Etymology

Etymology

The origin of the term bogan as a pejorative is unclear; both the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary cite the origin as unknown. Comparison might be made with the Scots Gaelic bòcan or the Manx buggane, mythological creatures with elements of mischief, nuisance or malice.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) included the word in its Australian dictionary project in 1991, and said the earliest use they found was in the September 1985 issue of surfing magazine Tracks: "So what if I have a mohawk and wear Dr Martens (boots for all you uninformed bogans)?" The 1902 poem "City of Dreadful Thirst" by Australian poet Banjo Paterson makes reference to a "Bogan shower" as a term meaning "three raindrops and some dust". However this is clearly a reference to the dry region around the Bogan River in Central Western New South Wales.

Author Rolf Boldrewood,1888, in "Robbery Under Arms" describes the Lower Bogan: "Two or three weeks after, Starlight and I were taking a ride towards the Bogan Road, .... the Lower Bogan, an out-and-out wild place;" .

There are places in western New South Wales that contain bogan in their name — for example, Bogan Shire, the Bogan River and the rural village of Bogan Gate — but they are not regarded as the source of the term.

The word Bogan entered the Oxford English Dictionary in June 2012.