bogey

• bogie, bogy

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bəʊɡi/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /boʊɡi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophones: bogie, bogy
• Rhymes: -əʊɡi
• Hyphenation: bo‧gey

Probably related to or alteration of bogle, akin to or from a variant of Middle English bugge (“frightening specter, scarecrow”)^[1] (whence bug), itself of uncertain origin: perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat”, older “fear”), Irish bagairt (“threat”), but perhaps the root was borrowed from Germanic. Otherwise from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge and Alemannic German Böögg (“goblin”, “snot”).

See also Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), Old English pūca (“goblin, mischievous spirit”), Icelandic púki Swedish puke (“small devil, spook”), whence obsolete English puck. Perhaps the Middle English and Welsh words come from a word related to buck and originally referred to a goat-shaped specter. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Compare also booger.

The golf sense is from the devil as an imaginary player.

bogey (plural bogeys)

1. A ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature.

   Synonym: goblin

2. (archaic, often capitalized, usually with definite article) The Devil.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:Satan

4. (figuratively) A bugbear: any terrifying thing.
   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 54:

     If one man could be said to be responsible for the creation of the Russian bogy, it was a much-decorated British general named Sir Robert Wilson.

   • 2018 November 18, Phil McNulty, “England 2 - 1 Croatia”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     England could have been forgiven for believing the fates were against them as they trailed to their League A Group Four opponents, who have become something of a bogey side over the years.

5. (British, slang) A police officer.^[2][3]
6. (engineering) A standard of performance set up as a mark to be aimed at in competition.
7. (military, aviation) An unidentified aircraft,^{[n 1]} especially as observed as a spot on a radar screen and suspected to be hostile.
   • 1987, Greg Bear, “Lacrimosa Dies Illa!”, in The Forge of God (science fiction), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 83:

     He stood on the sand near the gravel road that passed within two miles of the site of the disintegrated bogey, binoculars hanging on a leather strap from his neck, face streaming with sweat under the brim of his hat... Army and government trucks passed along the road every few minutes, some bearing radiation stickers; many of those outward bound, he knew, carried fragments of the bogey. He was not privy to what they were finding.

8. (military, aviation, slang) Synonym of bandit: an enemy aircraft.
   • 1986, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Top Gun (motion picture), spoken by Cougar:

     God dammit, Mustang! This is Ghost Rider 117. This bogey is all over me. He's got missile lock on me. Do I have permission to fire?

9. (golf) A score of one over par on a hole.

   Coordinate terms: buzzard, par, birdie, eagle, albatross, condor, ostrich

10. (UK) Alternative form of booger: a piece of mucus in or removed from the nostril.

bogey (third-person singular simple present bogeys, present participle bogeying, simple past and past participle bogeyed or bogied)

1. (golf, ambitransitive) To make a bogey on (a particular hole).

Clipping of bog-standard +‎ -ey (diminutive suffix).

bogey (plural bogeys)

1. (UK, engineering) A bog-standard (representative) specimen taken from the center of production.

From Dharug bugi- (“to bathe, dive”).

bogey (third-person singular simple present bogeys, present participle bogeying, simple past and past participle bogeyed)

1. (Australia) To swim; to bathe. [from 18th c.]

bogey (plural bogeys)

1. (Australia) A swim or bathe; a bath. [from 19th c.]
   • 1994, Rita Huggins & Jackie Huggins, Auntie Rita, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 151:

     My mother would use leaves from trees to make soap for washing our bodies with, and unfortunately for us kids there was no excuse not to take a bogey.

A variant of bogie.

bogey (plural bogeys)

1. Alternative spelling of bogie (“one of two sets of wheels under a locomotive or railcar; also, a structure with axles and wheels under a locomotive, railcar, or semi which provides support and reduces vibration for the vehicle”).
2. Alternative spelling of bogie (“hand-operated truck or trolley”).
3. (British, dated, India, rail transport) Alternative spelling of bogie (“railway carriage”).
   • 2020 January 30, “Upgrading Kolkata's Tram Network”, in C40 Cities‎^[3], archived from the original on 25 February 2024:

     Upgrading the tram bogeys to air-conditioned bogeys costs the State Government approximately INR 25,00,000/- per bogey.

• “bogey”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “bogey”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

From English bogey.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboɡi/, [ˈbo̞ɡi]
• Rhymes: -oɡi
• Syllabification^(key): bo‧gey
• Hyphenation^(key): bo‧gey

bogey

1. (golf) bogey

• Seldom inflected in cases other than genitive singular (bogeyn) or nominative plural (bogeyt).
• For other inflected forms use bogi.

• bogi

Borrowed from English bogey.

• (France) IPA^(key): /bɔ.ɡɛ/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /bɔ.ɡe/, /bɔ.ɡi/

bogey m (plural bogeys)

1. (golf) bogey

• boguey

• eagle
• birdie
• albatros

Borrowed from Irish bógaí. Cognate with English bogie.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboːɡiː/

bogey

1. Small stove in a boat.

• Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (1990) “A Modern Glossary of the Dialect of Forth and Bargy”, in lrish University Review‎^[4], volume 20, number 1, Edinburgh University Press, page 154