"Beck Dissects Huckabee's Curious, Mysterious 'Bo" oger Bears' | The Blaze

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 8:39 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> At 5:46 PM -0400 4/25/11, victor steinbok wrote:
> >Is it a Southern thing?
> >
> >http://goo.gl/KJs3P
> >Columbus, Mississippi
> >The "Booger-Bear"
> >>  All of a sudden, my youngest brother ran through the group yelling
> >"Booger-Bear!" He looked TOTALLY scared to death. I thought he was joking,
> >but then my next brother did the same while pointing toward the unoccupied
> >side of out duplex apartment house.
> >
> >I am assuming "booger-bear" is an eggcornish variant of "bugbear".
>
> A blend, dare I say, of "bugbear", "bogeyman" (often pronounced
> "boogie-man"), and, well, booger.

OED has (US regional) "booger" meaning 'a menacing supernatural
creature; a goblin, bogy, or ghost' from 1827, and "boogerman" (same)
from 1847.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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