Etymology

bog

B3O1G2

Today it means: An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking. Full definition →

Middle English bog ← Scottish Gaelic bogach ← Old Irish bog
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bog · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Celtic · derived from*-ākos
  2. Old Irish · derived from-ach
  3. Proto-Celtic · derived from*buggos“soft, tender”
  4. Old Irish · derived frombog“soft”
  5. Scottish Gaelic · derived frombogach“soft, boggy ground”
  6. Middle English · inherited frombog
  7. English todaybog

Inherited from Middle English bog (originally chiefly in Ireland and Scotland), from Irish and Scottish Gaelic bogach (“soft, boggy ground”), from Old Irish bog (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *buggos (“soft, tender”) + Old Irish -ach, from Proto-Celtic *-ākos. The frequent use to form compounds regarding the animals and plants in such areas mimics Irish compositions such as bog-luachair (“bulrush, bogrush”). Its use for toilets is now often derived from the resemblance of latrines and outhouse cesspools to bogholes, but the noun sense appears to be a clipped form of boghouse (“outhouse, privy”), which derived (possibly via boggard) from the verb to bog, still used in Australian English. The derivation and its connection to other senses of "bog" remains uncertain, however, owing to an extreme lack of early citations due to its perceived vulgarity.

bog · noun2

See bug

bog · adjective, noun, verb3

Uncertain, although possibly related to bug in its original senses of "big" and "puffed up".

bog · verb4

From bug off, a clipping of bugger off, likely under the influence of bog (coarse British slang for "toilet[s]").

bog · verb5

From an abbreviation of Bogdanoff, in reference to Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.