/boh' gon/ [by analogy with proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless reinforced after 1980 by the similarity to Douglas Adams' s "Vogons"] 1. The elementary part
ICle of bogosity (see
quantum bogodynamICs). For instance, "the Ethernet is emitting bogons again" means that it is broken or acting in an errat
IC or bogus fashion. 2. A query
packet sent from a
TCP/IP domain resolver to a root server, having the reply bit set instead of the query bit. 3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent on a network. 4. A person who is bogus or who says bogus things. This was histor
ICally the original usage, but has been overtaken by its derivative senses. See also
bogosity compare
psyton,
fat electrons,
magIC smoke. The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary of nonce part
ICle names, including the "clutron" or "cluon" (indivisible part
ICle of cluefulness, obviously the antipart
ICle of the bogon) and the futon (elementary part
ICle of
randomness, or sometimes of lameness). These are not so much live usages in themselves as examples of a live meta-usage: that is, it has become a standard joke or linguist
IC maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysterious circumstances by inventing nonce part
ICle names. And these imply nonce part
ICle theories, with all their dignity or lack thereof (we might note parenthet
ICally that this is a generalisation from "(bogus part
ICle) theories" to "bogus (part
ICle theories)"!). Perhaps such part
ICles are the modern-day equivalents of trolls and wood-nymphs as standard starting-points around wh
ICh to construct explanatory myths. Of course, playing on an existing word (as in the "futon") yields additional flavour. [
Jargon File]
In addition suitable contents:
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