bogus
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbəʊ.ɡəs/
ipa: /ˈboʊ.ɡəs/
rhymes: -əʊɡəs
Forms: form: more bogus
form: most bogus
Etymology: First attested as an underworld term for an apparatus for creating counterfeit coins, then the coins themselves. Later, the word was applied to anything of poor quality. The newest use to mean useless is probably from the slang of computer hackers.
The origin is unknown, but there are at least two theories that try to trace its origin:
* From Hausa boko (“to fake”). Since bogus first appeared in the United States, it may be possible that its ancestor was brought there on a slave ship.
* From criminal slang as a short form of tantrabogus, a 19th-century slang term for a menacing object, making some believe that bogus might be linked to bogy or bogey (see bogeyman). In this sense, Bogus might be related to Bogle – a traditional trickster from the Scottish Borders, noted for achieving acts of household trickery; confusing, but not usually damaging.
Senses: examples: text: He was arrested for trying to cash a bogus check at the bank.
text: […] that he and David Whitmer swore falsley, stole, cheated, lied, sold bogus money, (base coin,), and also stones and sand for bogus; that letters in the post-office had been opened, read, and destroyed; and that those same men were concerned with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs.
ref: 1842, Daniel Parish Kidder, Mormonism and the Mormons: A Historical View of the Rise and Progress of the Sect Self-styled Latter-Day Saints, Carlton & Lanahan:
text: They have printed bogus despatches, and unhesitatingly used what they knew was bogus matter in a way to mislead even newspaper men.
ref: 1895, Alphonso Alva Hopkins, Wealth and Waste: The Principles of Political Economy in Their Application to the Present Problems of Labor, Law, and the Liquor Traffic, Funk & Wagnalls Company:
text: The organization of “bogus companies,” started purely for the purpose of eliminating competitors, seems to have been a not infrequent practice.
ref: 1921, Burton J. Hendrick, The Age of Big Business:
text: This was the first time that James had met with one of the bogus etymologists common at that period, who believed that the derivation of a word could be solved by finding any foreign word that sounded something like it.
ref: 1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 53:
synonyms: word: phony
word: artificial
word: bad
word: bogus
word: bollocks
word: concocted
word: counterfeit
word: ersatz
word: fabricated
word: false
word: falsified
word: fake
word: faux
word: feigned
word: forged
word: fraudulent
word: illegitimate
word: ingenuine
word: mock
word: phoney
word: phony-baloney
word: phony
word: phony as a three-dollar bill
word: pseudo
word: put-up
word: said to be
word: sham
word: spurious
word: synthetic
word: unauthentic
word: unreal
word: trumped-up
glosses: Counterfeit or fake; not genuine.
examples: text: What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?
ref: 1982, Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, spoken by Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn):
glosses: Undesirable or harmful.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Incorrect, useless, or broken.
examples: text: Bogus stamps are labels made to deceive stamp collectors. Many bogus stamps were made prior to 1900 when some had names of imaginary countries.
ref: 1962, Douglas Patrick, The International Guide to Stamps and Stamp Collecting: Includes the Answers to 1200 Questions Most Often Asked about Stamps:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
philately
synonyms: illegal
glosses: Of a totally fictitious issue printed for collectors, often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country (not to be confused with forgery, which is an illegitimate copy of a genuine stamp).
examples: text: bogus laws
glosses: Based on false or misleading information or unjustified assumptions.
Derived terms: bogon
bogosity
bogotic
bogotify
bogusly
bogusness
Bogus Ordo