Bogus

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈbəʊ.ɡəs/

Definitions

1. Not genuine or fraudulent in nature, intended to deceive or mislead
2. Fake or counterfeit in essence, often intended for deception or misrepresentation
3. Deceptively false or inauthentic, designed to mislead others or create an illusion of legitimacy

Etymology: "Bogus" first appeared in the American underworld as the name for an apparatus used to make counterfeit coins, and only later for the coins themselves. From there it spread to anything of poor quality, and its newest sense, "useless," is probably borrowed from computer hacker slang. Its true origin is unclear, and two competing theories exist. One links it to Hausa "boko," meaning "to fake," suggesting the word may have crossed the Atlantic with enslaved Africans. The other proposes a short form of "tantrabogus," a 19th-century criminal slang term for a menacing object, which in turn may tie it to "bogy" or "bogey," the bogeyman, and possibly to the Scottish Borders trickster Bogle, whose pranks confused households without doing real harm.

Synonyms: fake, fraudulent, counterfeit, phony, spurious

Antonyms: genuine, authentic, real, true, valid