They’re not exactly a new breed, but the Commodore loving, rats tail sporting, muffin top exposing collective known as ‘bogans’ who’ve been blasting Thirsty Merc since the dawn of time (circa 2003) are now getting official international recognition with the induction of the word Bogan to the Oxford English Dictionary.
They’ve been infiltrating our airwaves, televisions and Hill’s Hoisted backyards for decades (refer: Kath and Kim, Lleyton and Bec Hewitt, Corey Worthington), so it’s appropriate for the Oxford English Dictionary to acknowledge the existence of this unique group as the publication has done previously with anthropological subsets like “slackers”, “teenyboppers” and “Juggalos”. (Maybe not Juggalos).
Defined as “an unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, esp. regarded as being of low social status”, by the OED, the bogan has taken up prime semantic real estate between “bling” (which is often favoured by the metropolitan bogan) and “bustler” (one that bustles).
Words by Tara Kenny
Via Crikey
Image by Scott Barbour, Getty Images
