bogon
bogon
2. A query packet sent from a TCP/IP domain resolver toa root server, having the reply bit set instead of the querybit.
3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent on a network.
4. A person who is bogus or who says bogus things. This washistorically the original usage, but has been overtaken by itsderivative senses. See also bogosity; compare psyton,fat electrons, magic smoke.
The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary ofnonce particle names, including the "clutron" or "cluon"(indivisible particle of cluefulness, obviously theantiparticle of the bogon) and the futon (elementary particleof randomness, or sometimes of lameness). These are not somuch live usages in themselves as examples of a livemeta-usage: that is, it has become a standard joke orlinguistic maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysteriouscircumstances by inventing nonce particle names. And theseimply nonce particle theories, with all their dignity or lackthereof (we might note parenthetically that this is ageneralisation from "(bogus particle) theories" to "bogus(particle theories)"!). Perhaps such particles are themodern-day equivalents of trolls and wood-nymphs as standardstarting-points around which to construct explanatory myths.Of course, playing on an existing word (as in the "futon")yields additional flavour.