Bugger

For the alien species in Ender's Game, see Formics. For the album by Stack Waddy, see Bugger Off! For the song by Canadian group Len, see You Can't Stop the Bum Rush. For other uses, see Bugger (disambiguation).

Bugger is a slang word. The term is a general-purpose expletive, used to imply dissatisfaction, or used to refer to someone or something whose behaviour is in some way displeasing.

The term is used in the vernacular British English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Indian English, Pakistani English, Caribbean English and in Sri Lankan English. It is derived from Anglo-Norman bougre, which has also given the term buggery.

Etymology

"Bugger" derives from the medieval sect of the Bogomils, which originated in Bulgaria and propagated other sects such as the Paulicians, Cathars, Patarenes and Albigenses.

The name of the Bogomil movement was bulgarus in Latin (meaning "Bulgarian"),. It became boulgre, later bougre in Old French meaning "heretic, traitor". It entered German as Buger meaning "peasant, blockhead" (and went on to English as bugger) and the French term also entered old Italian as buggero and Spanish as bujarrón, both in the meaning of "sodomite", since it was supposed that heretics would approach sex (just like everything else) in an "inverse" way. The word went on towards Venetian Italian as buzerar, meaning "to do sodomy." This word entered German again (see reborrowing) as Buserant and went on to Hungarian as buzeráns, becoming buzi around the 1900s, a form still in use as a sexual slur for male homosexuals.

Noun

The most common use of 'Bugger' as a noun is to denote a homosexual. Though legal definitions have provided an artificially broad definition and dictionaries often offer cyclic definitions, i.e. a bugger is someone who commits buggery, common usage remains generally restricted to a homosexual male.

The word may be used amongst friends in an affectionate way and is used as a vernacular noun in order to imply that one is very fond of something (I'm a bugger for Welsh cakes). It can also imply a negative tendency (He's a silly bugger for losing his keys) [i.e., He's a fool for often losing his keys].

In some English speaking communities the word has been in use traditionally without any profane connotations. For instance, within the Anglo-Indian community in India the word "bugger" has been in use, in an affectionate manner, to address or refer to a close friend or fellow schoolmate. In the United States it can be a rough synonym to whippersnapper as in calling a young boy a "little bugger."

In 1978 Judge Melford Stevenson called the British Sexual Offences Act 1967 a buggers' charter.

Verb

As a verb, the word is (potentially accidentally) used by the British to denote sodomy. In the UK, the phrase Bugger me sideways (or a variation thereupon) can be used as an expression of surprise. It can be used as a synonym for 'broken', as in "This PC's buggered," "Oh no! I've buggered it up," or "It's gone to buggery." In Anglophone Southern Africa, also in Australia and the UK, "buggered" is colloquially used to describe something, usually a machine or vehicle, as broken but can be repaired, whilst something damaged beyond repair is "fucked."

The phrase bugger off (bug off in American English) means to go, or run, away; when used as a command it means "go away" ["get lost" or "leave me alone"] and can be seen to be used in much the same type of relatively softly 'offensive' manner.

"I'm buggered" or "I'll be buggered" is used as a colloquial phrase in the UK (and often in New Zealand and Australia as well) to denote or feign surprise at an unexpected (or possibly unwanted) occurrence. "I'm buggered" can also be used to indicate a state of fatigue. In this latter form it found fame in New Zealand in 1956 through rugby player Peter Jones, who - in a live post-match radio interview - declared himself "absolutely buggered", a turn of phrase considered shocking at the time.

It is famously alleged that the last words of King George V were "Bugger Bognor", in response to a suggestion that he might recover from his illness and visit Bognor Regis. Variations on the phrase bugger it are commonly used to imply frustration, admission of defeat or the sense that something is not worth doing, as in bugger this for a lark or bugger this for a game of soldiers.

Interjection

As an interjection, "bugger" is sometimes used as an expletive or interjection.

As with most other expletives its continued use has reduced its shock value and offensiveness, to the extent the Toyota car company in Australia and New Zealand ran a popular series of advertisements where "Bugger!" was the only spoken word (with exception of an utterance of "bugger me!") (frequently repeated) then, a censored version of the ad in which Bugger! was bleeped out as a joke against those who spoke out against the ad, claiming it was offensive. The term is generally not used in the United States, but it is recognised, although inoffensive there. It is also used in Canada more frequently than in the United States but with less stigma than in other parts of the world. In the pre-watershed television version of Four Weddings and a Funeral the opening sequence is modified from repeated exclamations of "Fuck!" by Hugh Grant and Charlotte Coleman when they are late for the first wedding to repeated exclamations of "Bugger!".

Derived terms

Bagarapim

"Bagarap" (from "buggered up") is a common word in Pacific pidgins such as Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea, Brokan (Torres Strait Creole) of Australia and Papua and others, meaning "broken", "hurt", "ruined", "destroyed", "tired", and so on, as in Tok Pisin "kanu i bagarap", Brokan "kenu i bagarap", "the canoe is broken" or Tok Pisin/Brokan "kaikai i bagarap", "the food is spoiled." Tok Pisisn "mi bagarap pinis" ("me bugger-up finish") means, "I am very tired," or "I am very ill", while the Brokan equivalent, "ai pinis bagarap" is more "I'm done in", "I'm finished/I've had it". The term was put to use in the album Bagarap Empires by Fred Smith, which was made to capture the peace process in Bougainville, an island province of Papua New Guinea; in a number of the songs he uses Melanesian pidgin, the language used in Bougainville and elsewhere.

Little buggers

Children, a term so inoffensive in the United Kingdom that there is a series of professional teaching manuals with titles that start "Getting the little buggers to..."

Bugger about

To mess around, to do something ineffectively.

Bugger all

Bugger all means "nothing" as in You may not like paying taxes, but there's bugger all you can do about it. See also fuck all, sweet FA, and Llareggub.

Bugger me

The phrase "Bugger Me" is a slang term used for a situation that has yielded an unexpected or undesirable result.

Common usage includes "bugger me dead" and "bugger me blind".

Bugger's muddle

Colloquial military term for a disorderly group - either assembled without formation or in a formation that does not meet the standards of the commentator: "just form a bugger's muddle", "there's a bugger's muddle of civvies hanging around the gate", "Get that bugger's muddle of yours fallen in properly".

Bugger off

The phrase "bugger off" is a slang or dismissive term meaning "leave". See also "fuck off."

Buggery

The word 'buggery' today also serves as a general expletive (mild, moderate or severe depending on the context and company), and can be used to replace the word 'bugger' as a simple expletive or as a simile in phrases which do not actually refer literally in any sense to buggery itself, but just use the word for its informal strength of impact, e.g. Run like buggery, which is equivalent to Run like hell. but would be regarded by most listeners as more obscene.

See also

• Buggery
• Buggery Act 1533