MAFS Australia gives us many things; drama, tears, romance and, it turns out, a new lexicon to get to grips with. That's thanks to the word 'Bogan' which we kept hearing again and again on this series, leading viewers to question what it actually means.
The word was first used this year by Lauren Hall, who dated Jono MucCollough from the last season of MAFs. She used the word to describe fellow bride Jamie Marinos, saying she is 'a bit boganic.' She said: 'Jamie. I mean, she's lovely, but, like, in the real world, we wouldn't be friends' continuing 'she's too loud. And spilling drinks. We need to get her a new manicure. Jamie needs to get her nails fixed. She's just a bit boganic. It should be in the dictionary, but basically it's just a word to describe someone who's a bogan. It's like, if you're a derro, you're like, you're a derelict. You're a bogan. You're, like, boganic.'
Lauren and other cast members have continued saying the word in several other episodes. Naturally, this has sent social media users into a frenzy as they grappled to understand what the word could mean. 'Lauren proper trying to force this Bogan word on us #mafs #MAFSAU #MAFSAustralia #MAFSAUS,' wrote one user, accompanied by a meme of Mean Girl's Gretchen Wieners. 'If she says Boganic one more time I swear to god #MAFSAU,' another user quipped. A third wrote 'I swear next time i hear the word boganic again i should be paid #MAFSAU #MAFS.'
So what does Boganic actually mean?
According to The Cambridge Dictionary, 'Bogan' is 'an insulting word for a person whose way of dressing, speaking and heaving is thought to show their lack of education and social class.' Similarly, Australia's Macquarie Dictionary defines a bogan as a 'person, generally from an outer suburb of a city or town and from a lower socio-economic background, viewed as uncultured.' Yikes, so one we won't be using ourselves then.
In an interview with Channel Nine academic Henry Paternoster descried 'bogan' as 'one of those words where if you ask someone what they mean by it, you're going to get a lot of different answers.'
According to Paternoster, the word is linked to class. 'We don't really use the term working class anymore, so when we talk about class, we now use words like "bogan",' he said. 'I think one of the really interesting things about this word is that 'bogan' can be used depending on whether you want to celebrate bogans or you want to denigrate them; it becomes this stereotype used to bash Australians or to elevate some aspect of what you think Australian culture is.'
However, it's not strictly an insult, and Aussies apparently like to use bogan as a compliment, too. In one Reddit thread, a user writers that Bogan is a 'term of endearment for a person who is simply living their life.'
So there we have it.