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bevan


1. a rough young man.
2. a male viewed as stupid or unfashionable. Compare bog2, bogan, chigger, booner, boonie, feral, westie. [from Bevan a male name]
Contributor's comments: We used to call the "Seven Eleven" store the "Bevan heaven" as that is where all the guys with flannies and long hair used to hang out (80's).

Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] I always thought that a bevan was a car freak, a.k.a. spanner-brain or petrol-head.

Contributor's comments: Bevans would drive V8s, wear heavy metal t-shirts and mullets.

Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] 'Bevan' is not confined to Queensland; it is just as common in New South Wales.

Contributor's comments: I've lived in Qld all my life and I had not heard of this use of the word 'bevan' until I listened to the show on Radio National tonight.

Contributor's comments: "Bevan" has travelled at least as far south as Armidale, NSW.

Contributor's comments: [New England informant] This term is also used in NSW, but seems to have been superseded by the word 'bogan', which seems to mean the same thing.

Contributor's comments: [Brisbane informant] This usage must be dying out, our teacher used it in class one day and had awful trouble communicating what she'd originally intended to. None of our generation understood. I think she used it in reference to a long haired, flanno wearing, ute driving white male with fluffy dice hanging from the rear-vision mirror.

Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] When I was in my very early around 11, 12, 13, I distincly remember my older sister referring to people we usually called bogans as 'bevans'. However my memory suggests that the reason for this is because anyone with the name 'Bevan' had to be a bit of an uncool person. It is worth noting at the time that there was a TV show on called Young Talent Time which had a young child performer called Bevan on it. For us youngsters he was seen as being a bit of an uncool bogan, and he had slightly mulletty curls on the back of his head. It is interesting to note that the phrase did not seem to stick around very long, and the word bogan came back to dominate pretty quickly.

Contributor's comments: In Brisbane we always used the word 'bevan' as described, with the only exception being when the band "Savage Garden" enjoyed such success - it was much more fun to call them the "bogans from Logan". Westie doesn't cut it in Brisbo because the Western suburbs of Brisbane are posh!

Contributor's comments: I attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace in Brisbane, and I suspect I was around during the Birth of the expression 'Bevan.' At the time (late 70's) there was rumoured to be a Brisbane Boys Grammer individual named Bevan who, on weekends prefered to wear 'The Flanno' and Ug Boots, drive around in a Holden Sandman, and listen to Heavy Metal, while your average upper middle class youth, prefered wearing Penguin shirts and Amco tabs the trendy attire of the era. It's a great story and who knows? It may just be true.

Contributor's comments: Do you think this term derived from Young Talent Time? I heard the phrase frequently in the late 80s but the current term is Bogon.

Contributor's comments: In the small town I live in, there's not much for teenagers to do on weekends. Bevans are the people, ususally male, who park their super charged cars in centre parking and talk all night. "Bevan-ing" is also used as a verb, which describes doing laps of the main street, eventually parking and becoming a Bevan.

Contributor's comments: When I was growing up in Sydney, these people were known as Westies. I moved to brisbane at 15, and was introduced to Bevans. They generally had loud cars, mullets, stonewash jeans and ug boots.

Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] a dag: "He's such a bevan!"

Contributor's comments: Yeah I only remember this being used in Sydney to mean a dag, and then only in the 80s where it wasn't very common amongst my friends.

Contributor's comments: I remember when the term was first used, and I always associted it with Bevan from Young Talent Time. I think the usage of the term might be isolated to areas where the show was shown, as I moved to Canberra and nobody had heard of the term, mainly because it wasn't aired there. The term was always "You're such a bevan". At least Bevan is still famous, probably not for what he would like to be remembered as. I wonder where he is now.