Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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adj
Abbreviation of whole-of-government.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Abbreviation of Winter Olympic Games.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A non-white person, especially one of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, dated, ethnic, slur
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Someone of Mediterranean descent, such as an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lebanese, Greek, or Maltese person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: wop, dago
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person who is not a Scientologist.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: attributive, often
Topics: Scientology, lifestyle, religion
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Clipping of polliwog.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
Topics: nautical, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A bug, an insect.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A minor illness caused by bacteria, virus, intestinal parasite, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A toy insect in parts that can be assembled, used in fund-raising games.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, obsolete, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Initialism of water-oil-gas, typically marked on valves that are acceptable for use with these fluids.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
Qualifier: piping; valves; piping; valves
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
(Of soldiers stationed abroad) to sell something, especially illicit or stolen goods, to the local inhabitants.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, obsolete
Qualifier: WWII slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To steal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, UK, dated
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
(offensive British slang) term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: person of color, person of colour
History
The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast." The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of 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. The Scientologist sense is from the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who apparently accepted the folk etymology from “worthy Oriental gentleman” but employed the term to mean “common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid”.
Clipping of polliwog (“a tadpole”).
Unknown. Probably from Etymology 2, a clipping of polliwog (“a tadpole”).
Across languages
15 source translations are retained for this English entry.
