Oh my word Bogie, Bogy, Bogey, Bogus

Bogus rail tickets could be sold next to the bogies of a train at the busy railway stations in the country, and there will be bogeymen too.

Bogey is a noun. It has many meanings. In golf, bogey is a score of one stroke more than par at any hole. Its plural form is bogeys. Let us say, usually it takes 3 shots to put the ball into the hole (of a 9-hole or 18-hole golf course), but if it takes four shots, it is called bogey.

Bogey is an evil. Bogey is mischievous spirit. Note that the alternative spelling of bogey in this sense is bogy. And the plural forms of bogey and bogy are bogeys or bogies. Bogey is an awkward thing or circumstance. In British slang, bogey refers to nasal mucus which is a nineteenth century coinage. Importantly, bogey was a proper name applied to the Devil. Chimera is a bogey – a fantastic or grotesque product of the imagination.

Bogeyman, or bogyman is a person causing fear or difficulty to others and he could be imaginary, or real.

Is there a bogeyman in your life causing harm?

Bogeymen are usually smoked out by the police, or at least the bogeymen are in the list of police to track them down when they sense harm from them to the society.

In British English, bogie is a wheeled undercarriage pivoted below the end of a rail vehicle, or car (train), a railroad truck. In Indian English, and in native languages of South Asia, bogie refers to a railway carriage in a train. Many trains in India usually have more than ten bogies.

The government in the states of India, and at the national level has the challenging task of rooting out bogus ration cards. Bogus is an adjective. Bogus means sham. Something that is spurious. The variants of bogus are bogusly (adverb) and bogusness (noun). It is of American origin of 19th century.

Bogus means counterfeit, fake, not genuine (bogus currencies is one of the biggest issues for Reserve Bank of India to deal in the country); something that is incorrect, broker or useless; for philatelist, care should be taken while collecting stamps because there will be bogus stamps, or forged stamps that look or appear almost real. Bogus stamps are those that are copies of the genuine ones.

Bogus laws are those that are unjustified assumptions, based on false or misleading information. The challenging task of the officials on election duty in India is to prevent the bogus (fake) voters from casting votes.

Kovuuri G Reddy