The term "bogart" meaning to keep, hog, hide, really originated at Folsom prison in California.
The habit of hovering over ones food with arm around it was called "bowl guarding" and was extremely common to prevent others from trying to grab portions or steal it. This extended quickly to become "bogart" in easy prison slang referring to hogging any thing particularly a marijuana joint which was typically passed from person to person. The expression spread to other prisons and to the California general underground population and eventually became public in the song "don't Bogart that Joint, My Friend" in 1976. "Bogart in this usage has nothing to do with Humphrey Bogart, that was just an assumption by people who didnt really know where it came from. No one dangles a marijuana joint from the lips or flips it callously like Humphrey Bogart. This reference was a weak attempt to explain the word which spread because the real origin was not known.
The habit of hovering over ones food with arm around it was called "bowl guarding" and was extremely common to prevent others from trying to grab portions or steal it. This extended quickly to become "bogart" in easy prison slang referring to hogging any thing particularly a marijuana joint which was typically passed from person to person. The expression spread to other prisons and to the California general underground population and eventually became public in the song "don't Bogart that Joint, My Friend" in 1976. "Bogart in this usage has nothing to do with Humphrey Bogart, that was just an assumption by people who didnt really know where it came from. No one dangles a marijuana joint from the lips or flips it callously like Humphrey Bogart. This reference was a weak attempt to explain the word which spread because the real origin was not known.
