Bogger
A person from the countryside, especially the deep rural one. Used by urban speakers, often pejoratively, sometimes affectionately. A close synonym for 'culchie' but with a stronger image: a culchie is rural, a bogger lives where the bog is.
Etymology
From 'bog' (the wet peaty land of rural Ireland) plus the agent suffix '-er'. Built on the same logic as 'townie' for an urban person: name the landscape, attach an inhabitant suffix. The compendium notes the form as well-established in Dublin and other urban Irish slang. Distinct from 'bog' the verb (to dig peat) - bogger is purely the person, not the activity.
In a sentence
"A bus-load of boggers came up for the match - hadn't seen Dublin since the last All-Ireland."
Historical notes
Bogger sits next to 'culchie' in the small Hiberno-English urban-rural vocabulary, with slightly different shading. Bogger is more pointed - the image of someone from the literal bogs - and so the word has less of culchie's friendly-mockery range. A bogger is more clearly rural and more clearly other. The reciprocal word from rural speakers about urban speakers is 'jackeen'; together the three words make the triangle of Irish urban-rural mutual naming.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry bogger n. (Irish English). · dictionary