1. an imaginary goblin or specter used to excite fear
2a: an object or source of dread
b: a continuing source of irritation
Bugbear sounds like some kind of grotesque hybrid creature from fable or folklore, and that very well may be what the word's creator was trying to evoke. When the word entered English in the 16th century, it referred to any kind of creature made up to frighten someone-most often a child; in 1592, Thomas Nashe wrote of "Meere bugge-beares to scare boyes." In the late 20th century, the word found new life as the name of a particular kind of creature in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
From Wikipedia:
A bugbear is a legendary creature or type of hobgoblin comparable to the bogeyman (or bugaboo or babau or cucuy), and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children.
Its name is derived from the Middle English word bugge (a frightening thing), or perhaps the old Welsh word bwg (evil spirit or goblin), or old Scots bogill (goblin), and has cognates in German bögge or böggel-mann (goblin), and most probably also English "bogeyman" and American English "bugaboo".
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