[Ads-l] Bog standard

[Barretts Mail]

I don’t know anything about this, but FWIW, it appears “ordnance” is the preferred spelling. Also, there was such a thing as “Brunel’s (broad) gauge”, which could possibly also be the B. 

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
 
> On 19 Feb 2017, at 14:46, 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
> 
> =====
> 
> And added afterward this theory with an attested initialism behind it:
> 
> =====
> 
> 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
> 
> =====
> 
> Mark

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