wog

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɒɡ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒɡ

Etymology 1

• An abbreviation of golliwog, which was first used the name of a black-faced doll in Bertha Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of erroneous folk etymologies exist, with the most common claiming that the word is an acronym for one of either westernized, worthy, wily, or wonderful preceding “Oriental gentlemen”. Another erroneous claim is that it was used in the mid 1800s, with WOGS (meaning Working On Government Service) stencilled on the shirts of Indian workers in Egypt.

Noun

wog (plural wogs)

1. (British, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) Any dark-skinned person. It originally referred specifically to Indians, but later also applied to people of North African, Mediterranean, or Middle Eastern ancestry.
   • 1889, The American Missionary Volume 43 p. 81‎^[2]:

     'One of the little Indian girls whose name is Polly has just come in to ask, " Miss D., what is a wog? One white boy called me a polliwog, and I thought a wog must be something bad."'

   • 1921, Lionel James, chapter 18, in The History of King Edward's Horse, page 188:

     "The King Edward's Horse called the Indian Cavalry 'The Wogs'—which is the diminutive of 'Golliwogs',—a description that was very apt of these dark apparitions in khaki and tin-hats."

2. (Australia, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Southern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, or Eastern European ancestry.
   • 2015, Johnny Lieu, “Cronulla Riots: What happened on one of Australia's darkest days”, in Mashable‎^[3]:

     'Every fucking aussie. Go to Cronulla Beach Sunday for some Leb and wog bashing Aussie Pride ok.'

Synonyms

• (person of Italian descent): dago, Eyetie, goombah, greaseball, guido, guinea, wop

Translations

an offensive term for a dark-skinned person

• Danish: perker (da) c
• Finnish: laku (fi)
• French: bougnoule (fr)
• German: Kanake (de) m, Ölauge m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: ciapaty (pl) m, brudas (pl) m
• Russian: чу́рка (ru) f (čúrka), чурба́н (ru) m (čurbán), чучме́к (ru) m (čučmék), чернома́зый (ru) m (černomázyj), черножо́пый (ru) m (černožópyj) (offensive and vulgar)
• Swedish: blatte (sv) c, babbe (sv) c

person of Italian descent — see wop

Derived terms

• wogball
• woggish
• wogspeak
• woggy

Verb

1. (Australia, WWII slang, obsolete) (Of soldiers stationed abroad) to sell something, especially illicit or stolen goods, to the local inhabitants.
2. (Australia, WWII slang, obsolete) To steal.

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of polliwog (“a tadpole”).

Noun

wog (plural wogs)

1. Abbreviation of polliwog.
2. (nautical, slang) A pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator. Often referred to as either filthy, slimy, or even dirty wogs

Etymology 3

Unknown. Probably an abbreviation of polliwog (“a tadpole”).

Noun

wog (plural wogs)

1. (Australia slang) A bug, an insect.
2. (Australia slang) A minor illness caused by bacteria, virus, intestinal parasite, etc.
3. (Australia slang, obsolete) A toy insect in parts that can be assembled, used in fund-raising games.

Etymology 4

Following the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who held that wog was originally an acronym of Worthy Oriental Gentleman, but employed it in the specific sense of 'common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid'.

Noun

wog (plural wogs)

1. (Scientology) A person who is not a Scientologist.

Etymology 5

Initialism.

Noun

wog (plural wogs)

1. (piping, valves) WOG = water-oil-gas, typically marked on valves indicating acceptable for use with these fluids.

Anagrams

• Gow., gow

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German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /voːk/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

Verb

wog

1. (deprecated template usage) First-person singular preterite of wiegen.
2. (deprecated template usage) Third-person singular preterite of wiegen.
3. (deprecated template usage) First-person singular preterite of wägen.
4. (deprecated template usage) Third-person singular preterite of wägen.