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• bogan
  bogan

  noun

  a backwater, usually narrow and tranquil.
• Bogan
  Bogan

  noun

  Louise, 1897–1970, U.S. poet.

bogan

¹ American  

[boh-guhn] / ˈboʊ gən /

noun

Northern Maine and Canadian (chiefly Maritimes and Northern New Brunswick).

1. a backwater, usually narrow and tranquil.

2. any narrow stretch of water.

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Bogan ² American  

[boh-gan, boh-guhn] / boʊˈgæn, ˈboʊ gən /

noun

1. Louise, 1897–1970, U.S. poet.

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bogan ¹ British  

/ ˈbəʊɡən /

noun

1. a fool

2. a hooligan

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bogan ² British  

/ ˈbəʊɡən /

noun

1. Also called: logan, pokelogan. (esp in the Maritime Provinces) a sluggish side stream

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Etymology

Origin of bogan

First recorded in 1895–1900; apparently shortening of pokelogan, perhaps conflated with bog ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bogan Bogan

Except this is a "bogan" version translated by Ander Louis, the pen name of a Melbourne IT worker who moonlights as a writer.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

Those shape-shifting bogan qualities along with Louis' varied resume - kitchen hand, energy analyst, Uber driver, punk rocker, Tokyo resident – makes him "strangely qualified" to create a bogan translation.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

Dr. Laugesen noted that “fauxgan,” or fake bogan, was becoming the bigger insult, while finding your “inner bogan” was an honorable goal, suggesting Australians were eager to reclaim their more unsophisticated past.

From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2022

Lambie quickly appropriated the insult: “I will use the business contacts, advice and wisdom I’ve gained … to help restore hope and rebuild our beautiful state – not bad for a bogan.’

From US News ● Jul. 22, 2014

The pool was an old river-channel, now closed above, and making a quiet deep pool such as in England is called a "backwater" and in Canada a "bogan."

From Westways by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell

Economist Vicki Bogan, who wasn’t involved with creating the formula, views it as a useful bridge between academic theory and everyday investors’ needs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026

“It might not be perfect, but it gives a solid, kind of directionally correct way to think about your portfolio choice,” said Bogan, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026

Bogan, a term which first emerged in Australia in the 1980s, initially meant an "unsophisticated and uncultured person" with negative connotations, but not for Louis.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

"We can undo some of the damage that we've done to rivers and their inhabitants across the western USA," Bogan said.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2024

I don't know who Ann Bogan is, annyway; perhaps herself does, having lived in it five or six years longer than me.

From The Queen's Twin and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett

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