Bog-Oranges, subs. (popular).—Potatoes. The phrase is an allusion to the vegetable in question forming a very substantial food staple of the Irish peasantry, with whom, in the popular mind, potatoes are largely associated. Hence probably the nickname. Cf., Murphy. [Oranges, from the shape, + bog = Irish, Bog-land being a humorous nickname for the Emerald Isle.]
Bog-trotter, subs. (familiar).—A
satirical name for an Irishman.
Camden, however [c. 1605],
speaking of the 'debateable
land' on the borders of England
and Scotland, says, 'both these
dales breed notable bog-trotters.'
From this the original
sense would appear to have
been one accustomed to walk
across bogs. As a nickname for
an Irishman, it dates at least
from 1671.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xxvii. (Repr. 1874), p. 232. [Irishmen are spoken of as bog-trotters in this work.]
1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxix. Gaunt reapers and bog-trotters in those traditional blue body-coats, leathern smalls, and bell-crowned hats, that seem to be manufactured nowhere save in Ireland.
Bog-trotting, adj. (familiar).—A contemptuous epithet applied to one living among bogs; e.g., a bog-trotting Irishman.
1758-65. Goldsmith, On Quack Doctors (Essays and Poems, 1836), p. 127. Rock advises the world to beware of bog-trotting quacks.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, I., p. 169. The impudent, bog-trotting scamp dare not threaten me!
1876. C. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 191. 'What do you mean by calling me Irish? it is you that are Irish, you .' 'Ha! ha! ha! ha!' jerked out Fagan. 'There, I tould you so. He can't stand to be called by his true name; the bog-trotting rascal denies his Ould Ireland for a mother.'
Bogus, adj. (American, now common).—Spurious:
fictitious;
a term applied to anything
sham, or to that which is not
what it professes to be. Various
accounts, some of them of a
circumstantial character, are
given as to the genesis of this
word. One thing only seems
certain; and that is its American
origin. The generally received
derivation, hitherto, has
been that given by the Boston
Courier (12 June, 1857) to the
effect that the word is a vile
corruption of the Italian name
Borghese, a notorious swindler,
who about the year 1837 literally
flooded the Western and
South-western States with
fictitious cheques, notes, and
bills of exchange and similar
securities to an enormous
amount. It is said that the
name was gradually corrupted
first to borges and then to bogus,
and the man Borghese being
associated in the popular mind
with doubtful money transactions,
his name so corrupted
into bogus became applied to
fraudulent papers and practices,
and latterly to any spurious
or counterfeit object, as bogus
money, hair, diamonds, accusations,
etc. Yet another suggestion
is one put forward by Mr.
Jas. Russell Lowell. He thinks
it has descended in a corrupted
form from the French Bagasse,
the refuse of the sugar cane
after the juice has been expressed.
This worthless product
has, it is suggested, given
the name to other worthless
things having travelled from
Louisiana up the Mississippi,
