"bug-a-boo" meaning in All languages combined

See bug-a-boo on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈbʌɡəbuː/ Audio: en-us-bugaboo.ogg [US] Forms: bug-a-boos [plural]
Etymology: An earlier form was seen in buggybow, probably an alteration of bugbear (see bug), but connected by Chapman ("Dictionary of American Slang") with Bugibu, demon in the Old French poem Aliscans from 1141, which is perhaps of Celtic origin as a pagan god (compare Cornish buccaboo (“devil”), from bucca (“bogle, goblin”)). Alternatively, bug + a + boo. For a similar semantic development from a heathen god to demon to monster, compare etymology of French lutin. Etymology templates: {{m|en|buggybow}} buggybow, {{m|en|bugbear}} bugbear, {{der|en|cel|-}} Celtic, {{cog|kw|buccaboo||devil}} Cornish buccaboo (“devil”), {{m|kw|bucca||bogle, goblin}} bucca (“bogle, goblin”), {{compound|en|bug|a|boo}} bug + a + boo, {{m|fr|lutin}} lutin Head templates: {{en-noun}} bug-a-boo (plural bug-a-boos)
  1. A mythical, nocturnal creature; a hobgoblin. Synonyms (hostile supernatural creature): goblin
    Sense id: en-bug-a-boo-en-noun-04eyQ1R7 Disambiguation of 'hostile supernatural creature': 96 4
  2. Any imagined fear or threat, or a fear presumed larger than it really is.
    Sense id: en-bug-a-boo-en-noun-eogVYxG~ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 58 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 32 68 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 28 72
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: bugaboo Related terms: bogey, boo-boo, bugbear, bogeyman

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for bug-a-boo meaning in All languages combined (3.9kB)

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          "ref": "1776, William Kenrick, London review of English and foreign literature, page 316",
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          "type": "quotation"
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      "id": "en-bug-a-boo-en-noun-04eyQ1R7",
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        {
          "ref": "1949, – George R. Stewart, Earth Abides, page 80",
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Gerald Stanley Lee, Crowds, page 543",
          "text": "There is the Goody-good Bug-a-boo, the Consistency Bug-a-boo, and the Bug-a-boo that Thomas Jefferson if he were living now, would never never ride in a carriage.\nEach of these bug-a-boos in the general mistiness and muddleheadedness of the time can be seen going about, saying \"Boo! Boo!\" to this democracy ...",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɡəbuː/"
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    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Celtic languages",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
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  "pos": "noun",
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    },
    {
      "word": "bugbear"
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      "word": "bogeyman"
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          "ref": "1776, William Kenrick, London review of English and foreign literature, page 316",
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          "ref": "2008, Gerald Stanley Lee, Crowds, page 543",
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      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɡəbuː/"
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      "sense": "hostile supernatural creature",
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}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.