bugaboo
Other forms: bugaboos
Use the noun bugaboo to describe something that causes worry, like the bugaboo of having three tests on the same day at school.
Bugaboo is also another name for the creature known as the bogeyman, an imaginary monster that children believe will hurt them or even take them away if they don't behave. Some usage experts trace bugaboo to Scotland, where the now-obsolete word bogill meant "goblin, bugbear." A bugbear, in the 1580 coining of the word, was a demon that looked like a bear and ate small children.
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an imaginary monster used to frighten children
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a source of concern
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Vocabulary lists containing bugaboo
This adaptation of an Old English epic describes the feats of the warrior Beowulf, who arrives in the great hall of Heorot to defeat a bloodthirsty monster.
The novelist David Foster Wallace was obsessed with good writing, and taught students how to write well at two universities. He had his own takes on the timeless debates of grammar, and could hold court on the rather idiosyncratic rationales behind his beliefs. Wallace's Biographer, D.T. Max, profiles the relationship between Wallace and Bryan Gardner, editor of The Dictionary of Modern American Usage, in this New Yorker blog post. D.F.W.’S Favorite Grammarian The New Yorker, December 11, 2013. If you are interested in David Foster Wallace and Grammar, you may want to take a look at this Language Hat post, which offers evidence and analysis which suggests that he didn't quite know what he was talking about.
In this sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, three women navigate the repressive regime of the Republic of Gilead.