tap / space
Classic usage
Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency
Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.
From actor Humphrey Bogart, from Dutch surname Bogaard (“keeper of an orchard”), from boomgaard (“treegarden, orchard”), cognate to English boom (“piece of wood”)/beam + garden. Senses of selfishness and excess evolved from the original 1960s use meaning “keep a joint in the mouth instead of passing it on”, recalling the actor’s signature practice of keeping a cigarette dangling from his mouth even while speaking. Other senses of “bullying” or “tough guy” also originated in the 1960s and recall the actor’s various movie roles. Another potential origin of the vernacular comes from Humphrey Bogart's role in the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) in which his character, Dobbs, becomes increasingly selfish with the gold mine that he shares with his two partners. Or it could be from The Big Sleep (1946) in which Lauren Bacall lights a cigarette for him while he is tied up, forcing him to dangle the cigarette from his lips for the rest of the scene. According to an interview with "The Fraternity of Man" bandmember Lawrence "Stash" Wagner, he "got down on my knees and begged" the ABC record label to put their song "Don't Bogart That Joint" on a single, agreeing to change the title to "Don't Bogart Me." On the origin on the song, he said, "The band was smoking some pot in our rehearsal house up in Laurel Canyon, when Elliot [Ingber] turned to me and said, 'Hey man, don’t bogart that thing.' I asked him, what does ‘bogart’ mean? He said, “You know, like Humphrey Bogart always had a cigarette in his hand or hanging from his lips when talking. Well, you were hanging onto that joint while your lips were flapping.' I said, 'Cool, we should write a song using Bogart.'" Source.
Humphrey Bogart, Humphrey DeForest Bogart
Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.
A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning
Tap any word for its meaning
Sign in to use the worksheet generator.
Upload a file or open a document first.
One printable exam — questions numbered continuously with a single answer key. Only auto-gradable, closed-choice types are available; online auto-grading stays in Classroom.
Sign in to see your reading-vocabulary progress.
Your ledger is waiting
Read a chapter and tap the words you meet. Every word you learn is recorded here as your reading vocabulary grows.
—
Sign in to use vocabulary.
No vocabulary lists yet.
No matching vocabulary.
No words in this vocabulary yet.
Click a word in the Reader to add it.
Sign in to use bookmarks.
No bookmarks saved yet.
No matching bookmarks.
Sign in to save and open your own documents.
No saved documents yet.
Open a file or URL in the Reader, then use “Save to My Docs”.
All caught up — your streak is safe.
No cards due — add words to a list.
Loading…
tap / space
Classic usage
Loading…
Building today's round…
No tests yet. Open a book in the Reader or pick a vocabulary list, then test yourself to start tracking your score.
Recent books: 0 books
Verbault — Brown corpus levels, WordNet definitions, Gutenberg corpus.
Pick a puzzle source to start.
Sign in to use this source.