[Ads-l] Bog standard

[Laurence Horn]

OED does suggest the “box-standard” origin Michael Quinion (below link) is skeptical of:

Origin: Of uncertain origin.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of box-standard adj

And there are 19th-century attestations of box-standard which might or not have been reanalyzed into “bog-standard” (first attested by the OED in a 1962 ad, so presumably it was around earlier—but how much earlier?).  No mention of the BoG acronym, which does strike as having the whiff of the etymythological; so many of those (faux) acronyms are post facto reconstructions.  

LH

> On Feb 19, 2017, at 6:48 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Another blogger, who himself is English, offered a different acronym
> theory:
> 
> =====
> 
> Bog in the original instance, was an acronym for 'British [ordinance]
> guaranteed' and was a military term applied to ammo tested and made by the
> Army's ordinance wor l.p.ks. Which was usually a standardised round with
> nothing fancy and if you wanted anything different, you had to buy untested
> third party, i.e not BoG standard. [I believe it was originally applied to
> musket balls.]
> 
> =====
> 
> http://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/10866211.html?thread=2
> 7506723#cmt27506723
> 
> On Feb 19, 2017 2:29 PM, "Mark Mandel" <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks. Still puzzled, but at least I know I'm not alone.
>> 
>> On Feb 19, 2017 1:40 PM, "Michael Quinion" <michael.quinion at worldwideword
>> s.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Used by a blogger I follow who, when queried, explained thus:
>>> 
>>> It's a slang term I picked up from my extended family, of British origin
>>> (and sometimes spelled bog-standard or even bogstandard). It means
>> utterly
>>> ordinary, unremarkable, and unexceptional.
>> 
>> For more see http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bog1.htm
>> 
>> --
>> Michael Quinion
>> michael.quinion at worldwidewords.org
>> http://www.worldwidewords.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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