"nightmare" and "bugbear"

[Larry Trask]

Roz Frank writes:

>  I was wondering if anyone could help me to identify articles that have
>  dealt with the etymology of 'nightmare' or 'bugbear'.

I haven't seen any articles, but I'm not aware there's any great
mystery about the etymology of either.  The OED provides fully
documented etymologies for both.

The first is built on Old English <mare> 'female goblin', the feminine
form of <mar> 'goblin'.  This word is recorded from at least AD 700 in
English, and it has established cognates in other Germanic languages.
In English, it was applied from the beginning to an imaginary monster
which perched on people's chests while they slept and caused them
to feel suffocation or other distress.  From the late 13th century, the
word often came to be reinforced by 'night', in the same sense.  The
original form 'mare' endured until the 17th century, at least, after
which it died out, though Dr. Johnson listed it in his 1755 dictionary.

For a long time, 'nightmare' continued to denote the monster, in which
sense it competed with the alternative 'night-hag'.  Until well into
the 19th century, the usual locution was still 'to have the nightmare'.
Only in the 19th century does the OED record any citations in which
the newer sense of 'bad dream' seems to be intended.  Since then, this
has become the only sense, and the locution has become 'to have a
nightmare'.

With the disappearance of the original 'mare' from the language, an
obvious folk-etymology has led to the reinterpretation of the second part
of 'nightmare' as the unrelated word 'mare' (= 'female horse').

As for 'bugbear', this appears to be built on the obsolete word 'bug',
meaning 'an object of terror, especially an imaginary one', 'bogey man'.
This is suspected of deriving from an early Welsh word <bwg> 'ghost',
'hobgoblin'.  This 'bug' is recorded from the late 14th century to the
early 18th century, since when it has died out.

The compound 'bugbear' is recorded from the late 16th century, and its
second element is apparently the ordinary word 'bear', the animal name.
It originally denoted an imaginary monster, presumably in the shape of
a bear, which supposedly ate naughty children, and which was used by nurses
to threaten children.  This sense eventually died out in favor of the more
general sense of 'an object of needless dread', 'imaginary terror'.

It is possible, though far from certain, that the original 'bug' is
continued in 'bogey man'.  The problem is that 'bogey man' is not
recorded until long after the original 'bug' had apparently disappeared
from the language.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: 01273-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)