fogy

American  

[foh-gee] / ˈfoʊ gi /

Or fogey

noun

• fogies
  plural

1. an excessively conservative or old-fashioned person, especially one who is intellectually dull (usually preceded byold ).

   The board of directors were old fogies still living in the 19th century.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fogyism
  noun
• fogyish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fogies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of fogy

First recorded in 1770–80; origin uncertain

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Explanation

A fogy is an old fashioned, boring, unstylish person. You might accuse your dad of being an old fogy if he tells you to turn down your music. You can spell the word fogy or fogey — either way, you're probably talking about an older person, and you're definitely talking about a dull, conservative person. The word comes from the Scottish foggie, and it originally meant "an army veteran." Fogy may be related to the antiquated slang word fogram, "old fashioned person," or from an early, now obscure meaning of fog, "bloated fat."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fogy fogies

Consequently, throughout the 1970s and ’80s Wilson was viewed as a Tory, a young fogy.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2022

I comfortably describe myself as an old fogy.

From Slate ● Feb. 6, 2018

Bellow was aware that his repeated insistence on our “state of radical distraction” made him sound, at times, like a fogy, a turkey gobbling at the inanities of the young.

From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2015

Slopen, a young fogy, explains this novel’s sensibility, somewhat, by stating that his father was technically a Victorian.

From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2014

He called himself an old fogy, and wished he might be twenty years younger.

From The Spectacle Man A Story of the Missing Bridge by Mary Finley Leonard

“What it says for old fogies like me, is that the young are hungry for the word of God,” said Oldham, who is in his 40s.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024

“It gives me an opportunity to go down the Soul Train Line and show these young people these old fogies can dance, too.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2022

Time and sorrow may make fogies of us all.

From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2021

But in our multiple-exclamation-pointed, totally amazing, but like oh-em-gee, the worst society, this kind of over-the-top rhetoric is what passes for what we old fogies used to call “contrast” in elections.

From Fox News ● Aug. 28, 2020

I had found only a few old fogies in Nassau and a banker in Frankfort who seemed to be in a disappointed and depressed state of mind.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, August 1908 by Various

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