Oxford dictionary recognises bogans

by MATT JONES

Start growing your mullet and dust off the flano – ‘‘bogan’’ has been added to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

The OED, which bills itself as ‘‘the accepted authority on the English language’’, saw fit to include the slang term on a list of new words included in a quarterly update of the hallowed tome.

The Oxford defines a bogan as a ‘‘depreciative term for unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, especially of low social status’’.

While some will no doubt be pleased that ‘‘yoose guys’’ at the OED have decided to give a group of iconic Aussies official recognition, the Oxford was beaten to the punch by the Macquarie Dictionary, which already defines a bogan as a “person, generally from an outer suburb of a city or town and from a lower socio-economic background, viewed as uncultured.”

The origin of the term remains a mystery, although the Australian National Dictionary Centre included the word in its Australian dictionary project in 1991, and said the earliest use they found was in the September 1985 issue of surfing magazine Tracks.

What is widely accepted is that the term only really took off after it was used in the late 1980s by the fictitious schoolgirl ‘Kylie Mole’ in the television series The Comedy Company.

Other words to be added to the OED in June include ‘‘BitTorrent’’, ‘‘cybercast’’, ‘‘dance-off’’ and ‘‘paywall’’.