Where Did “Bogan” Come From?
This is where things get wonderfully murky.
The popular theories include:
- the Bogan River/Bogan Shire in western New South Wales;
- an old Australian literary reference;
- regional Australian slang;
- and the possibility that it originated as Melbourne teenage slang.
The evidence currently points most strongly toward Melbourne in the early 1980s, although the ultimate etymology remains uncertain.
Historian and linguist Bruce Moore found evidence from 1984, in a student magazine at Melbourne’s Xavier College, describing a fictional “bogan doll”. The character already possessed many of the stereotypes we would recognise today: tattoos, long hair, heavy-metal clothing, sleeveless denim, etc. The word then appears in a 1985 issue of Tracks magazine.
By the late 1980s it was spreading nationally. By the early 1990s, it was essentially established Australian slang.
The really funny part
The word may have been popularised by upper-middle-class private-school teenagers describing people they considered uncultured.
In other words: The bogan may have been invented by people who weren’t bogans.
- Did an elite Melbourne private school give Australia the word ‘bogan’? – ABC News
- The Australian national dictionary : Australian words and their origins / edited by Bruce Moore ;… | Catalogue | National Library of Australia
- The Bogan Bible by Paul Fenech | Goodreads
- Legolingo : the cadets’ language / compiled by Bill Cowham ; with an introduction by Rob Darby | Catalogue | National Library of Australia
