- skip - Brewer’s

Bugbear

.

A scarecrow. Bug is the Welsh bwg, a hobgoblin, called in Russia buka. Spenser says, “A ghastly bug doth greatly them affear” (book ii. canto 3); and Hamlet has “bugs and goblins” (v. 2).

Warwick was a bug that feared us all.”


Shakespeare: 3 Henry IV., v. 3.


“To the world no bug bear is so great

As want of figure and a small estate.”


Pope: Satires, iii. 67–68.

⁂ The latter half of this word is somewhat doubtful. The Welsh bár = ire, fury, wrath, whence barog, spiteful, seems probable.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Budget
Buff
Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Robe (A)
Buffer
Buffer (A)
Buffoon
Buffoons
Buffs
Bugaboo
Bugbear
Buggy
Buhl-work
Build
Build
Builder’s Square
Bulbul
Bulis
Bull
Bull
Bull

Linking here:

Fairies