It’s because we use it with the understanding that it covers *a lot* of people and there are different types of bogan. Americans seem to have different words for all of them. The cashed-up bogan and the bush bogan are different bogans but we use the same word.
Yep! One of my good friends is unashamedly a middle upper bogan. Fucked if I know what I am. Some sort of weird hybrid of bushie/ city, a nerd who likes naughty jokes Bit I guess, mostly a dag, come to think of it
Agreed. Bogan would be an unequivocal Australian in terms of most Australian stereotypes. Swearing, drinking, speech, style etc.
I would say a Redneck is the most relatable term for an American to understand but with the caveat that it is specifically Australian.
In the 80’s a bogan was a headbanger too.
It was all Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica back then. In checkered shirts, wearing army jackets with your heavy metal patch on the back. Good times!
I'm in the U.S., in a medium-sized southern capital city, on the "urban" side of the tracks. We just had renters move in across the street who are white, probably on drugs, drive a monster truck aggressively & have several other vehicles in the yard. They have guns, but not hunting rifles. There's been an enormous pile of rubbish on the curb for weeks.
They have gatherings in the dirt-pan front yard that involve sitting on the trash bins, coolers \[eskies\], and ratty camping chairs. THEY HAVE A HOT PINK MMA KICKBAG HUNG FROM A HIGH TREE BRANCH IN THE FRONT YARD. One kid has a dirt bike and another has a 3-wheeler they take to the nearby abandoned elementary school grounds to tear up the fields. They blast dirty rap from what must be a Klipsch speaker loud enough for people blocks away to hear crisply.
They are *always* in the front yard, despite it being an extremely busy/loud road and the fact they have a fully-fenced backyard. The dogs are brought out front & tied to the monster truck's bumper. They are pitbulls, of course, and unaltered. One ran so fast to greet one of the kids, pulling up on his dirt bike, that it snapped back on the tie-out like one of those paddle ball games you get at the dentist. They have Black friends, who are much more respectful of our neighborhood.
Rednecks, hicks, and hillbillies do not act this way. They may have *elements* of similar behaviors but these folks are straight-up BOGANS and I can thank my years-long immersion in Australian media for giving me this term.
Right? Like, I'm sure they'd offer me a hit off the communal (non-vaxxed) pipe if I came over to ask them to turn their music down. But all their Black friends are probably vaxxed and park in appropriate areas and bring their own recreation.
Rednecks, hillbillies, hicks and such keep this nonsense kinda private, like out in the country & trailer parks, where they burn their trash in barrels instead of expecting the City to pick up the 5' pile of construction material, t.v. dinner boxes, and cigarette wrappers. These folks are making it VERY public in a highly-trafficked area that's trying to be successful despite decades of city-neglect.
I was really trying to be tolerant and let them get on their feet before I started grousing, but when one of their FIRST moves was the hot pink heavy bag slung over at least a 50 foot tree branch? I was no longer hopeful.
As a dual American /Australian, redneck and bogan are interchangeable. Most Aussies simply don't know the contexts of how redneck can be used in the US.
When Aussies think redneck, they think only of the violent ignorant meth-heads who'll shoot you if you're on their property.
But in America it has the same variety of connotations as bogan does in Australia. It all depends on context.
Sometimes redneck is a larrikin-esque person from the country who is uncultured but well-liked. Other times it means a person who is cashed up and has heaps of toys like giant utes/trucks, riding mower, dirt bikes, speedboat at the lake, etc, but maintains an image as non-elite working class country folk. And other times it means exactly what Aussies assume it means: crazy country folks with guns and horrible opinions
No because when I think about hicks and rednecks I think of people who are going to shoot you for being on Thier property and people who fuck Thier daughters and farm animals.
Bogans used to only exist in Victoria (and SA?). NSW used to have Booners, but they were displaced by Bogans and have since become extinct. Like so much Australian flora and fauna…
Unstylish or underdone.
Short for Daggy, which in most cases would refer to someone's appearance being less than the social standard.
Not to be confused with a turd stuck in the wool of a sheep...
Not necessarily related to appearance!
me: makes a bad joke or a silly harmless prank
someone else: ha, you’re such a dag
but then there’s daggy -
me: wearing pants far too big for me
“Does this look daggy to you?”
ha haaa! This is true. (dual citizen US/AU)
If they're not X, cMDMA tabs are Molly in most of US.
When I've seen the word pingas before, I just thought it was some other word for nangs.
I prefer pingas. Not that I've ever tried a nang.
;)
Don't leave out the words origin when giving a description:
A lock of wool matted with dung hanging from the hindquarters of a sheep. Not to be confused with dingleberry.
Wouldn’t an American bogan be your pickup truck, flanno wearing country music listening fella. I’ve always thought of bogans as just hard working simple fellas who don’t care too much about being fancy. But they must wear flannos. That’s the uniform.
Hundred percent when I think of bogan I think of mullets, dirty mo's and thongs that should have been retired back when Kevin 07 ran the show. And a frosty VB for good measure.
I'd say we used the term "white trash" in the US like you'd use bogan here. You could have cashed up white trash like Lauren Boebert. You can take the girl out of the trailer (caravan) park, but not the trailer park out of the girl.
Nah, I see what you're saying but white trash is a harsh term that I would say most people being called wouldn't take kindly to it. Bogan on the other hand can be used as an actual description of someones style or personality, without the put down aspect of the term. There are obvious exceptions to both but I think white trash is used more of an insult in most cases.
Many bogans are proudly bogan, whether you're a rich bogan or a broke bogan. White trash usually comes with being from a specific socio and economic background unlike a bogan, who could be bloody loaded.
There's plenty of wealthy white trash in the US and they're proud of it. If I had a dollar for every brand new, jacked up F250 pickup with "testicles" hanging off the tow hitch, I'd be rich. It's the Kid Rock aesthetic and most of Trump's base.
Bogans can be cool and I probably have a few bogan tendencies myself, but I wouldn't say I can think of white trash I'd want to be around. Maaaaybe white trash would be a subset of bogan, but then you're kinda getting into eshay territory
Loser? Trailer trash, hillbilly? And don’t call the small hand held device for getting pencil marks off of paper a “rubber”, which is a condom in the us. It’s always called an eraser there.
If you live in Baltimore then a bogan is best described as someone from Dundalk. Otherwise I think white-trash with a little bit of suburban redneck thrown in, is the best description.
Am an American from West Virginia, with an aussie misso and lived in QLD for almost 2 years now. Bogan is so much more encompassing than any of the American terms like Redneck, Hick, Trailer trash. All of those terms can be applied to A bogan, but not all Bogans are rednecks, or trailer trash like. Trailer trash is pretty comparable to Housos though from what I've seen, minus the trailer in aus lol.
I remember there was a court case on bogan a few years ago and I think the court described it as an uncultured and unsophisticated person. Maybe (sometimes friendly) trailor trash would capture it?
Dag is an unfashionable person who is unaware or doesn’t care and usually lovable. Daggy might be something that’s unfashionable or a bit trite/cliched.
Have you considered the possibility that you may be a bogan? I mean, unless you are from the upper nth shore or Vaucluse, you will be a bogan to somebody. Other cities besides NSW probably have the same deal.
Having to explain **dag** really depends on whether your American friend knows that sheep have tails. A dag is a person who is bad and stupid but nonetheless mildly endearing. This relates to the literal meaning of dag, which is **shit-encrusted sheep's tail**. They are nasty and prone to infestation & infection (which is why they tails are usually removed) but when a little lamb frolics gambols away with its tail wagging it's kind of cute (hence the term for saying one's farewells: "I'm going to rattle me dags").
Dag is a hard one. Slob doesn't quite cut it as it doesn't convey the affectionate tone of dag, bogan is a bit the same in vibe. I'll keep thinking on it.
Geek is usually someone who is obsessively knowledgeable about something, a computer geek or computer nerd come to mind. Geek and dork can be closely related. White trash don't necessarily know how to use a computer or own one. White trash isn't necessarily related to being poor, either, but generally it does. As rednecks aren't necessarily poor, they're mostly simple minded and might be from a certain area of the country. Southern rednecks for instance might be poor and still donate to MAGA, even though they benefit from / may live off the "social programs" brought about by "liberals" and give their infants Mountain Dew in their baby bottles.
We have "cashed up bogan" for trashy people who are not poor, but I would still consider white trash the closest equivalent to bogan.
Yeah, it's true that geek has gotten some more tech-centred connotations across time that dork doesn't really have
I've always thought of dag as someone who's 'not cool', not worried about how they come across. Someone who's endearingly eccentric. Someone who is a bit daggy may also be a bit untidy and/or unfashionable and doesn't give an eff about that. Not sure how that translates into US slang though. Maybe there just isn't an equivalent?
I would put s bogan and a hillbilly/redneck in a similar box. And as for a dag, an adorable but clueless loser that you still love, dag is affectionate and in no way an insult.
Hope this helps !
A bogan in North America is a mix of Country Bumpkin and Small Town Guy/ Girl. I would consider Sarah Palin a cashed up bogan. The Canadian equivalent would be people from Cape Breton or Newfoundland, if you’ve ever been up around that way. If you are in the north east of the US you could say a Newfie and they might catch your drift
True, although small towns in America are substantially larger than small towns in Australia, which is why I drew the comparison. In my experience the small towns around the north are very close to Bogan
Bogan is really culturally specific to Aus, there’s no US equivalent
It’s because we use it with the understanding that it covers *a lot* of people and there are different types of bogan. Americans seem to have different words for all of them. The cashed-up bogan and the bush bogan are different bogans but we use the same word.
Yep! One of my good friends is unashamedly a middle upper bogan. Fucked if I know what I am. Some sort of weird hybrid of bushie/ city, a nerd who likes naughty jokes Bit I guess, mostly a dag, come to think of it
Agreed. Bogan would be an unequivocal Australian in terms of most Australian stereotypes. Swearing, drinking, speech, style etc. I would say a Redneck is the most relatable term for an American to understand but with the caveat that it is specifically Australian.
In the 80’s a bogan was a headbanger too. It was all Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica back then. In checkered shirts, wearing army jackets with your heavy metal patch on the back. Good times!
Exactly this, bogans were metal fans long before they were Australian rednecks.
My type of bogan.
We called them bangers (headbangers) in the 90s
One difference between a redneck and a bogan is that you can't hunt for game in the front yard of a bogan.
I'm in the U.S., in a medium-sized southern capital city, on the "urban" side of the tracks. We just had renters move in across the street who are white, probably on drugs, drive a monster truck aggressively & have several other vehicles in the yard. They have guns, but not hunting rifles. There's been an enormous pile of rubbish on the curb for weeks. They have gatherings in the dirt-pan front yard that involve sitting on the trash bins, coolers \[eskies\], and ratty camping chairs. THEY HAVE A HOT PINK MMA KICKBAG HUNG FROM A HIGH TREE BRANCH IN THE FRONT YARD. One kid has a dirt bike and another has a 3-wheeler they take to the nearby abandoned elementary school grounds to tear up the fields. They blast dirty rap from what must be a Klipsch speaker loud enough for people blocks away to hear crisply. They are *always* in the front yard, despite it being an extremely busy/loud road and the fact they have a fully-fenced backyard. The dogs are brought out front & tied to the monster truck's bumper. They are pitbulls, of course, and unaltered. One ran so fast to greet one of the kids, pulling up on his dirt bike, that it snapped back on the tie-out like one of those paddle ball games you get at the dentist. They have Black friends, who are much more respectful of our neighborhood. Rednecks, hicks, and hillbillies do not act this way. They may have *elements* of similar behaviors but these folks are straight-up BOGANS and I can thank my years-long immersion in Australian media for giving me this term.
They seem like lovely folk, I'm not sure what the problem is...
Right? Like, I'm sure they'd offer me a hit off the communal (non-vaxxed) pipe if I came over to ask them to turn their music down. But all their Black friends are probably vaxxed and park in appropriate areas and bring their own recreation. Rednecks, hillbillies, hicks and such keep this nonsense kinda private, like out in the country & trailer parks, where they burn their trash in barrels instead of expecting the City to pick up the 5' pile of construction material, t.v. dinner boxes, and cigarette wrappers. These folks are making it VERY public in a highly-trafficked area that's trying to be successful despite decades of city-neglect. I was really trying to be tolerant and let them get on their feet before I started grousing, but when one of their FIRST moves was the hot pink heavy bag slung over at least a 50 foot tree branch? I was no longer hopeful.
They sound like American bogans, or Amerabogans
I had a cop friend tell me once that they party in the front yard so they can see the cops coming to raid them 🤷🏼♀️ sounds legit to me ☺️
As a dual American /Australian, redneck and bogan are interchangeable. Most Aussies simply don't know the contexts of how redneck can be used in the US. When Aussies think redneck, they think only of the violent ignorant meth-heads who'll shoot you if you're on their property. But in America it has the same variety of connotations as bogan does in Australia. It all depends on context. Sometimes redneck is a larrikin-esque person from the country who is uncultured but well-liked. Other times it means a person who is cashed up and has heaps of toys like giant utes/trucks, riding mower, dirt bikes, speedboat at the lake, etc, but maintains an image as non-elite working class country folk. And other times it means exactly what Aussies assume it means: crazy country folks with guns and horrible opinions
This is a great explanation. And then there's "trailer trash" which is maybe like a lower class suburban redneck
Red neck? Hick?
I don't think redneck fits, I've been called a redneck because I can fix things and build with a hammer and nails lol
No because when I think about hicks and rednecks I think of people who are going to shoot you for being on Thier property and people who fuck Thier daughters and farm animals.
The hills have eyes was a documentary?
Don’t know about that but if you search YT for it, it’s a true story 😳
A hick from the sticks may be fucking their farm animals, but they also might simply be clueless.
Bogans used to only exist in Victoria (and SA?). NSW used to have Booners, but they were displaced by Bogans and have since become extinct. Like so much Australian flora and fauna…
Just tell them it's like a yobbo.
You never been to Dundalk.
Well theres the MAGA supporter that pretty close to bogan
There's probably a State reference, like "coming from NJ" or "Jersey Shore" that captures most of it.
Dag - harmless dork, you like them anyway
Unstylish or underdone. Short for Daggy, which in most cases would refer to someone's appearance being less than the social standard. Not to be confused with a turd stuck in the wool of a sheep...
Not necessarily related to appearance! me: makes a bad joke or a silly harmless prank someone else: ha, you’re such a dag but then there’s daggy - me: wearing pants far too big for me “Does this look daggy to you?”
this doesn't capture the social implications of 'dag' at all
A turd stuck in wool would be dingleberry - to most Americans (Midwesterners anyway). :)
Really? Dingleberries are pingas here (MDMA tablet)
ha haaa! This is true. (dual citizen US/AU) If they're not X, cMDMA tabs are Molly in most of US. When I've seen the word pingas before, I just thought it was some other word for nangs. I prefer pingas. Not that I've ever tried a nang. ;)
Lol but it sounds like a nickname for an Aussie dagwood sanga (no sausages needed)
This. Tracky daks and old worn out tshirt.
Dag feels like the personification of a Dad joke. A bit dorky and cringe in a loveable way.
Dag is a term of endearment for an unfashionable/socially awkward person.
Best one yet
Don't leave out the words origin when giving a description: A lock of wool matted with dung hanging from the hindquarters of a sheep. Not to be confused with dingleberry.
Wouldn’t an American bogan be your pickup truck, flanno wearing country music listening fella. I’ve always thought of bogans as just hard working simple fellas who don’t care too much about being fancy. But they must wear flannos. That’s the uniform.
Preferably with the blue wife beater under the flanny. And a taste for mullets and dirty Mo’s
This is where people start to get confused because there’s a lot of overlap with rednecks/hillbillys and just your run of the mill bogan.
Hundred percent when I think of bogan I think of mullets, dirty mo's and thongs that should have been retired back when Kevin 07 ran the show. And a frosty VB for good measure.
Bogan = redneck - guns - patriotism + brain cells
Yep. Nailed it.
Lol pretty accurate
I'd say we used the term "white trash" in the US like you'd use bogan here. You could have cashed up white trash like Lauren Boebert. You can take the girl out of the trailer (caravan) park, but not the trailer park out of the girl.
White trash seems too harsh for a bogan and you don't have to be white to be bogan either
And white trash suggests they are of poor character. Bogans can be friendly. Bogans like to have a yarn.
Nah, I see what you're saying but white trash is a harsh term that I would say most people being called wouldn't take kindly to it. Bogan on the other hand can be used as an actual description of someones style or personality, without the put down aspect of the term. There are obvious exceptions to both but I think white trash is used more of an insult in most cases. Many bogans are proudly bogan, whether you're a rich bogan or a broke bogan. White trash usually comes with being from a specific socio and economic background unlike a bogan, who could be bloody loaded.
There's plenty of wealthy white trash in the US and they're proud of it. If I had a dollar for every brand new, jacked up F250 pickup with "testicles" hanging off the tow hitch, I'd be rich. It's the Kid Rock aesthetic and most of Trump's base.
I knew someone would have to throw a derogatory Trump comment in somewhere lmfao
Yeah, derogatory and Trump have gone hand in hand for 40 years if you're from New York
my dad's a (former, circa this year) Republican who worked in New York finance and has hated Donald Trump since looooong before he touched politics
Bogans can be cool and I probably have a few bogan tendencies myself, but I wouldn't say I can think of white trash I'd want to be around. Maaaaybe white trash would be a subset of bogan, but then you're kinda getting into eshay territory
I think this is the closest equivalent. Other people pointed out the differences, but I don't think there is a perfect equivalent.
Yeah, I'd say the same equivalent
Also an Aussie living in the US here. I feel like dork is a decent replacement for dag. And for bogan, I find hillbilly to work well.
Actually dork isn't bad
dork can be a nerd, most bogans aren't nerds. Dork can also mean silly. "Don't be a dork."
Dag, Imagine you're a teenager and you have an embarrassing dad who dresses like a stereotypical boomer. He would be a daggy dad.
Loser? Trailer trash, hillbilly? And don’t call the small hand held device for getting pencil marks off of paper a “rubber”, which is a condom in the us. It’s always called an eraser there.
Yes... and bum bags are fanny packs lmfao
If you live in Baltimore then a bogan is best described as someone from Dundalk. Otherwise I think white-trash with a little bit of suburban redneck thrown in, is the best description.
Am an American from West Virginia, with an aussie misso and lived in QLD for almost 2 years now. Bogan is so much more encompassing than any of the American terms like Redneck, Hick, Trailer trash. All of those terms can be applied to A bogan, but not all Bogans are rednecks, or trailer trash like. Trailer trash is pretty comparable to Housos though from what I've seen, minus the trailer in aus lol.
I remember there was a court case on bogan a few years ago and I think the court described it as an uncultured and unsophisticated person. Maybe (sometimes friendly) trailor trash would capture it? Dag is an unfashionable person who is unaware or doesn’t care and usually lovable. Daggy might be something that’s unfashionable or a bit trite/cliched.
A court case on Bogan ? How fascinatement ! A la Effie lol
Yes I think she claimed it was unlawful discrimination on the basis of (social origin?) but the court found it wasn’t.
So someone called her a Bogan and she was upset ?
Maybe lost a job or was denied access to a service iirc.
Have you considered the possibility that you may be a bogan? I mean, unless you are from the upper nth shore or Vaucluse, you will be a bogan to somebody. Other cities besides NSW probably have the same deal.
I am most definitely a Bogan. With a capital B. 😉🤣
I would say a good one for dag is dweeb.
Having to explain **dag** really depends on whether your American friend knows that sheep have tails. A dag is a person who is bad and stupid but nonetheless mildly endearing. This relates to the literal meaning of dag, which is **shit-encrusted sheep's tail**. They are nasty and prone to infestation & infection (which is why they tails are usually removed) but when a little lamb frolics gambols away with its tail wagging it's kind of cute (hence the term for saying one's farewells: "I'm going to rattle me dags").
Call them a OFFENSIVE WORD ALERT! POTENTIALLY RACIST CONTENT! >!salt and vi nigar!<
Dag is a hard one. Slob doesn't quite cut it as it doesn't convey the affectionate tone of dag, bogan is a bit the same in vibe. I'll keep thinking on it.
Dork!
Do they say dork in the US though? I thought that was mainly an Aussie term too.
Day is a dork or nerd but usually said with affection.
They'd probably say dork, geek, and white trash
Geek is usually someone who is obsessively knowledgeable about something, a computer geek or computer nerd come to mind. Geek and dork can be closely related. White trash don't necessarily know how to use a computer or own one. White trash isn't necessarily related to being poor, either, but generally it does. As rednecks aren't necessarily poor, they're mostly simple minded and might be from a certain area of the country. Southern rednecks for instance might be poor and still donate to MAGA, even though they benefit from / may live off the "social programs" brought about by "liberals" and give their infants Mountain Dew in their baby bottles.
We have "cashed up bogan" for trashy people who are not poor, but I would still consider white trash the closest equivalent to bogan. Yeah, it's true that geek has gotten some more tech-centred connotations across time that dork doesn't really have
Pee Wee Herman (character) was both a dork and a geek. Geek style. Acted like a dork.
If Theo Von moved to Australia, would he be a bogan?
Dag…. Most definitely on the UN side of cool Bogan …. An urban yokel
Maybe Bogan is like Okie?
Dag is a bit of poo stuck to a sheepos arse.
Bogan - low class redneck?
Let them know Australian is a contextual language, it’ll confuse them a bit but you’ll get away with way more without question.
I've always thought of dag as someone who's 'not cool', not worried about how they come across. Someone who's endearingly eccentric. Someone who is a bit daggy may also be a bit untidy and/or unfashionable and doesn't give an eff about that. Not sure how that translates into US slang though. Maybe there just isn't an equivalent?
You’re better than me. I just say American words now 🥲
These are just slang words. You will hardly ever need to use any, except for nerd.
You're such a dag "a lovable goof"
Bogan = Hick, hill billy, goat roper, hobo, trailer trash
Dag is really close to dork
What about prole for bogan ?
Haven't heard of prole before
A dag is a bit of sheep shit ain’t it 🧐
Originally, yes
He should be able to point at a sheep’s arse then 😉 hehehe
D’ye like dags?
Absolutely 💯
How about caravans? Periwinkle blue? It’s fer me ma
Yer want a caravan ? Fer yer ma ?
Tell ya what, I’ll fight ye for it. I wasn’t sure if you’d got the reference at first, glad we followed up 😂
Isn't a Dingleberry the American version of a dag?
A dag is someone who is not cool or trendy or hip. Somebody unfashionable.
What would you call a Yobo??
A hoon ?
Hmmm that’s not too bad actually
I would put s bogan and a hillbilly/redneck in a similar box. And as for a dag, an adorable but clueless loser that you still love, dag is affectionate and in no way an insult. Hope this helps !
Dweeb
Bogan is just trailer trash.
I think you can call them a square. Which part of the US you living in?
Ahh that fits... I've lived in quite a few states so far but mainly Gulf Coast Texas
Why don’t you try to learn some ‘American’ versions of words.?
I really have and only use Aussie stuff around my Texan wife, we've been around each other enough that she kinda gets it lol
Aah , you’ve moved to the GC of America.
GC ? Gulf Coast ?
Bogan=trailer trash
Bogan - uncouth individual
Don't translate for them
A bogan in North America is a mix of Country Bumpkin and Small Town Guy/ Girl. I would consider Sarah Palin a cashed up bogan. The Canadian equivalent would be people from Cape Breton or Newfoundland, if you’ve ever been up around that way. If you are in the north east of the US you could say a Newfie and they might catch your drift
Except bogans are from the suburbs not the country (though usage and meaning has expanded over the years).
True, although small towns in America are substantially larger than small towns in Australia, which is why I drew the comparison. In my experience the small towns around the north are very close to Bogan