| 释义 |
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.
[c1200Aliscans 1141 in Anciens Poètes de la France (1870) X. 35 Et puis d' infer iras o Bugibu, Aveuc ton Dieu Mahom[et] et Cahu. ]
1740Xmas Entertainm. ii, Of Hobgoblins, Rawheads, and Bloody-bones, Buggybows. 1843Poe Premat. Burial Wks. 1867 I. 338 No fustian about church-yards, no bugaboo tales. 1870Lowell 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.
1827Lytton 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]. 1959Listener 15 Jan. 121/3 So straightforward an inquiry can produce so rich a harvest of pure bugaboo. |