banger

Etymology

It is formed from English bang + -er, a person or thing that bangs.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline notes the 17th-century word “bangster”, a muscular bully.^[3] For the sausage sense several explanations are offered: the tendency of sausages to burst or pop when fried without pricking,^[7][5][8][9] or a resemblance to a bludgeon, a sense recorded only in American slang.^[3][10] Tréguer calls the popping explanation a folk etymology, since the first sausages called “bangers”, in the Royal Navy, seem to have been good ones that sailors relished.^(Word Histories|"the unknown origin of ‘banger’ (sausage)", 29 April 2017) The sense "old car" is presumably from the backfiring of such cars.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that bangs, and in slang a blatant lie: 1657, in A. A. Crowther's Dayly Exercise of the Devout Rosarists.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s,^[3] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins says that the word was first a gross lie, a "whopper".^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense "a whopping lie" lasted into the 19th century: Green's records a sportsman who "tells a banger" in 1814 and street children sent out to tell "well-told bangers" in 1899.^[7] From the idea of something striking grew the use for something very large, recorded in Burns about 1800^[7] and in a glossary of North Country words of 1825,^[2] and for something excellent, from 1827.^[7] In dialect a banger was also a violent blow, in Lancashire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Berkshire.^[11] At Yale in 1849 a banger was a bludgeon or cane,^[2][8] and by 1898 a loud or violent kiss.^[2][8] The sausage sense appeared in the Navy: Tréguer found it in letters of a midshipman printed in the Tatler in 1904,^(Word Histories|"the unknown origin of ‘banger’ (sausage)", 29 April 2017) and Green's quotes Bartimeus in 1914, who explained bangers as tinned sausages.^[7] It spread in the First World War, among Australian and New Zealand troops too,^[7][2] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins considers it originally Australian.^[8] The old banger, a noisy worn-out car, is recorded from 1962,^[2][9] and since 1996 a banger has also been a song with a loud, danceable beat, and then any hit.^[2][7] In sport it names a hard hitter or a physically aggressive player.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1657 – a person or thing that bangs; a blatant lie.^[2]
• c. 1800 – something very large.^[7] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1825, in a glossary of northern words.^[2]
• 1827 – something excellent.^[7]
• 1849 – a bludgeon, in Yale slang.^[2]
• 1898 – a loud or violent kiss.^[2]
• 1904 – a sausage, in naval use.^(Word Histories|"the unknown origin of ‘banger’ (sausage)", 29 April 2017) The OED's first record is from 1919, and Merriam-Webster gives 1915.^[2][5]
• 1959 – a boxer who hits hard.^[7]
• 1962 – a noisy old car, usually old banger.^[2][9]
• 1996 – a song with a loud, danceable beat.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British, informal) A sausage: We had bangers and mash at the pub.^{[5][12][13][2]}
2. (British) A firework that goes off with a loud bang; a firecracker.^{[13][12][5][4]}
3. (British) A noisy, worn-out old car; a jalopy.^{[13][12][5][2]}
4. (informal) A song with a loud, prominent beat that is good to dance to; more generally, a successful song.^[2][7]
5. (informal) A forceful, physically aggressive athlete, or a boxer who hits hard.^[5][12][7]
6. Something exceptionally large or impressive; an excellent thing.^[2][7][11]
7. A person or thing that bangs.^[2][4]

Word family

• headbanger

Related words

• bang
• gangbanger

Usage notes

The OED lists a separate banger, a variant of banjo, recorded from 1775 to 1849.^[2][14] In gang slang, banger is also short for gangbanger, a gang member, from 1985.^[7] Green's records further slang uses: in Australia a morning coat (1881), and in the United States a dollar (1934).^[7] In Shropshire dialect a banger was also a three-pronged pitchfork,^[11] and in Dublin a footballer who is over the age limit.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
10. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
15. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan