Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A style of soul music popular in the mid 1960s, sometimes including Caribbean musical elements.
  • noun A style of dancing performed to this music.
  • noun A form of urban dance originating in the late 1960s, involving undulating, fluid body movements and briefly held poses, performed to funk music.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A genre of Latin American music and dance from the 1960s.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably alteration of boogie or boogie-woogie (perhaps influenced by hullabaloo).]

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Examples

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  • Boogaloo or Bugalu (shing-a-ling, popcorn music) is a genre of Latin music and dance that was very popular in the United States in the late 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B, rock and roll and soul with mambo and son montuno. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand television program. The boogaloo (bugalu spanish) dance was loose and interpretive in style. Early Boogaloo used a twelve-step sequence that was later sped up into a thirty-step sequence. The most common musical feature was a mid-tempo, looping melody that doubled as the anchoring rhythm, often played on piano or by the horn section. The presence of vocals, especially a catchy, anthematic chorus, was another distinguishing feature.

    _Wikipedia

    February 24, 2008

  • https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/05/31/864402190/who-owns-boogaloo

    In pockets of far-right and anarchist groups, there's a word often bandied about: "boogaloo." In January, NPR first reported that fringe movements including right wing militias and "patriot groups" had begun using the word "boogaloo" on social media as a thinly veiled code for a race-based or civil war. Such discussions – which often exist in the form of memes and anonymous posts on 4Chan, Reddit and Facebook groups – are critical of the government, encourage violence and armed resistance, and often employ racist and xenophobic language.

    June 1, 2020

  • Modern meaning?

    July 5, 2020

  • @bilby , Scarequotes link had the modern usage. The ADL has more background.

    https://www.adl.org/blog/the-boogaloo-extremists-new-slang-term-for-a-coming-civil-war

    you'll also see shortening of the term like boog bois

    July 5, 2020

  • Terima kasih alexz.

    July 7, 2020