Bogey

macle1ng · July 21, 2005, 5:07pm

I have always heard the term “bogey” used in movies and on television. Usually this is when two planes are fighting in mid-air. But Where did this term come from?? When was it first used?

Exapno_Mapcase · July 21, 2005, 5:24pm

WordOrigins:

Bogey is a term that today is usually only heard in the air force or on the golf course. Up in the wild, blue yonder it is a reference to an unidentified aircraft that is presumably hostile. Its counterpart is bandit which is used to refer to a known hostile aircraft. Both these aviation usages date to World War II, but the term bogey is much, much older.

On the links, a bogey is a score of one over par on a particular hole. According to the OED2, this term was invented in 1890 by a certain Major Wellman at the Great Yarmouth Golf Club. He was playing against a Dr. Thomas Browne using the scratch value of each hole. Wellman, having difficulty beating the scratch score, claimed that he was playing against a bogey-man, a character in a popular song at the time. In American usage, bogey came to mean one over par. The verb form appeared around 1942, the earliest cite in the OED2 being from Ben Hogan’s Power Golf.

Bogle is an old Scottish word for ghost, often spelled bogy, bogil, bogie, and other ways. The term dates at least to 1505, and is the source for our modern bogeyman or boogieman. It is akin to the Middle English bugge, meaning scarecrow, which survives to this day in bugbear.

So both of the above are usages representing phantoms, whether they be phantom planes or phantom players.

Chronos · July 21, 2005, 9:48pm

But how is this related to the modern British usage of the term for concretions of nasal mucous?

fortytwo · July 21, 2005, 10:05pm

Absolutely. That’s what a bogey is all right.

Exapno_Mapcase · July 21, 2005, 10:07pm

I see. It’s phantom, which is why Chronos spends so much time searching for it.

samclem · July 22, 2005, 1:34am

While the cite/site that Exapno provided is usually spot-on, I beg to differ with it on this specific matter.

Dave Wilton is the owner of that site. He’s one of the good guys out there on etymology. One of the best. I don’t know when he wrote that piece, but I don’t think it’s correct.

The current version of the OED, on-line, has nothing that would attribute it to the “1890, Colonel Wellman” cite that Dave provided.

It is cited from 1892. Period.

IMHO, the “Col. Wellman” story is just that…a story. I’m off to look for what I’ve turned up on the term, but attributing it to a specific person just ain’t there yet.