Meanings
alternative bog standard · alternative bogstandard
- derogatoryinformalUtterly basic, ordinary, or standard; unremarkable, unexceptional, etc.
Bog standard Sprite, 1959, two owners.
1962 April, Motor Sport, page 2832 more examples
She was ‘bog standard’—meaning straight from the production line without modifications.
1972 May 15, Daily Mirror, page 21Don't misunderstand me: there's nothing wrong with a low-cost bog-standard service, it's just that many people want something more and are happy to pay for it.
2019 December 18, Barry Doe, “Little prospect of a return to the great days of InterCity”, in Rail, page 73Synonyms: bogey, boggo, average, basic, common, common as bums, common as dirt, common as muck
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveUtterly basic, ordinary, or standard; unremarkable, unexceptional, etc.
Origin
Unknown, but probably derived from a corruption of box-standard under influence from bog (“toilet”), possibly via bog-wheel (“Cambridge slang for bicycle”), or from bog (“unsettled swampland”) in reference to a lack of sophistication or polish. Sometimes folk etymologized as separately deriving from bog (“toilet”) + standard after a supposed similarity among chamberpots or toilets (despite box-standard predating it by a century and bog's original use only in reference to latrines and outhouses) or from the unattested acronym BOG, allegedly short for British or German, referring to the supposed dominance of British and German engineering during Victorian times.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bog-standard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bog-standard
“bog-standard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bog-standard. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bog-standard,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bog-standard.
Source: bog-standard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.