bug-a-boo at English (WD) Of Explained:
==English==
Alternative forms
* bugabooPronunciation
* Inter: audio » en-us-bugaboo.ogg|Audio (US)Etymology
Inter: compound » bug|a|booNoun
Inter: en-nou » n|year=1776
|author=William Kenrick
|title=London review of English and foreign literature
|page=316
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=clEJAAAAQAAJ&q=bug-a-boo
|passage=The German ubu, as well as the French bibou, is also used for bug-a-boo, hobgoblin, or any other fantastical, terrific nocturnal object.
- Any imagined fear or threat, or a fear presumed larger than it really is.
- 1949 - George R. Stewart Category: w - :Earth_Abides|Earth Abides, p. 80
- : ...a fear had come upon them, and they had a kind of bug-a-boo terror about roving gangsters.
- Inter: quote-book »
|year=2008
|author=Gerald Stanley Lee
|title=Crowds
|page=543
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=CupD38NAUSEC&pg=PA543&cd=1#v=onepage&q=boo-boo%20%22bug%20a%20boo%22
|isbn=0554347180, 9780554347189
|passage=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.
Each 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 ...
See also
* bogey- boo-boo
- bugbear
Translation: io » bug-a-boo