[Ads-l] Bog standard

[Mark Mandel]

Another blogger, who himself is English, offered a different acronym
theory:

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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

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And added afterward this theory with an attested initialism behind it:

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It's a really old phrase, 1700 or earlier as far as I know, and for most of
that time hasn't been used except in fairly closed specialised circles, i.e
gun collectors. So, I'm not surprised it's not known. It probably popped up
again long after it fell out of the original usage, kept on life-support by
collectors.

I've seen a gauge board, a flat metal plate or strip, with a row of holes
of descending diameter in it, marked with B.O.G Standard. BOG being British
Ordinance Guaranteed [or Gauge, depending on the expert you ask]. Used to
gauge musket balls. It was dated 1712.

I'm fairly certain that box-standard is case of convergent evolution or
concatenation, with different origins.

https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/10866211.html?thread=27510051#cmt27510051

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Mark

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