bogus
/ˈboʊ̯ɡəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.43 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Counterfeit or fake; not genuine.
adj
Of a totally fictitious issue printed for collectors, often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country (not to be confused with forgery, which is an illegitimate copy of a genuine stamp).
adj
Based on false or misleading information or unjustified assumptions.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "He was arrested for trying to cash a bogus check at the bank."
- "[…] that he and David Whitmer swore falsley, stole, cheated, lied, sold bogus money, (base coin,), and also stones and sand for bogus; that letters in the post-office had been opened, read, and destroyed; and that those same men were concerned with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs."
- "They have printed bogus despatches, and unhesitatingly used what they knew was bogus matter in a way to mislead even newspaper men."
- "The organization of “bogus companies,” started purely for the purpose of eliminating competitors, seems to have been a not infrequent practice."
- "This was the first time that James had met with one of the bogus etymologists common at that period, who believed that the derivation of a word could be solved by finding any foreign word that sounded something like it."
- "What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?"
Etymology
First attested as an underworld term for an apparatus for creating counterfeit coins, then the coins themselves. Later, the word was applied to anything of poor quality. The newest use to mean useless is probably from the slang of computer hackers. The origin is unknown, but there are at least two theories that try to trace its origin: * From Hausa boko (“to fake”). Since bogus first appeared in the United States, it may be possible that its ancestor was brought there on a slave ship. * From criminal slang as a short form of tantrabogus, a 19th-century slang term for a menacing object, making some believe that bogus might be linked to bogy or bogey (see bogeyman). In this sense, Bogus might be related to Bogle – a traditional trickster from the Scottish Borders, noted for achieving acts of household trickery; confusing, but not usually damaging.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈboʊ̯ɡəs/
- British English: /ˈbəʊ̯ɡəs/
Usage
- Slang
- American usage
- Uncountable
- Archaic