English Explanatory Dictionary

bog-standard

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Utterly basic, ordinary, or standard; unremarkable, unexceptional, etc.

Pronunciation

/ˌbɒɡˈstændəd/ En-au-bog-standard.ogg

Word forms

bog-standard bog standard bogstandard

Etymology

Unknown, but probably derived from a corruption of box-standard under influence from bog (“toilet”), possibly via bog-wheel (“Cambridge slang for bicycle”), or from bog (“unsettled swampland”) in reference to a lack of sophistication or polish. Sometimes folk etymologized as separately deriving from bog (“toilet”) + standard after a supposed similarity among chamberpots or toilets (despite box-standard predating it by a century and bog's original use only in reference to latrines and outhouses) or from the unattested acronym BOG, allegedly short for British or German, referring to the supposed dominance of British and German engineering during Victorian times.

Synonyms

bogey boggo average basic bog-standard common common as bums common as dirt common as muck common as pig tracks dime a dozen everyday frequent general habitual nonrare par for the course pedestrian plain quotidian regular routinary routine ten a penny two a penny usual workaday medial commonplace common-and-garden common-or-garden congruent consistent conventional customary expected garden variety improminent mundane natural normal ordinary plain vanilla run-of-the-mill standard standard issue typical unexceptional unremarkable unstrange vulgar wakeaday

Derived words

bogey boggo

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on B Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary