bugaboo
(ˈbʌgəˌbuː)
Also 8 buggybow, 8– bugabo.
[? f. bug + boo int.: cf. Cornw. bucca-boo under bucca, also bogle-bo, and bug-boy in bug n.1 (Possibly a Celtic compound, in which case cf. OF. Beugibus, Bugibus, name of a demon.)]
1. a. A fancied object of terror; a bogy; a bugbear.
| [c 1200 Aliscans 1141 in Anciens Poètes de la France (1870) X. 35 Et puis d' infer iras o Bugibu, Aveuc ton Dieu Mahom[et] et Cahu.] |
| 1740 Xmas Entertainm. ii, Of Hobgoblins, Rawheads, and Bloody-bones, Buggybows. 1843 Poe Premat. Burial Wks. 1867 I. 338 No fustian about church-yards, no bugaboo tales. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. (1873) 128 If the sins themselves were such wretched bugaboos as he has painted. |
b. Cant. ‘A sheriff's officer’ (
Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tong. 1823); ‘a tally-man’, a weekly creditor (
ibid.); and similar senses.
| 1827 Lytton Pelham lxxix. Many a mad prank..which I should not like the bugaboos and bulkies to know. |
2. Loud or empty talk, nonsense, rubbish.
| 1897 [see guff2 2]. 1959 Listener 15 Jan. 121/3 So straightforward an inquiry can produce so rich a harvest of pure bugaboo. |