Literary notes about bugbear (AI summary)
In literature, "bugbear" is employed as a multifaceted term that encapsulates both the tangible and abstract fears of human experience. Webster, for instance, traces its roots to meanings of deception and terror, imbuing it with an aura of foreboding [1]. At times, writers invoke the word to denote ghostly or supernatural terrors that loom over characters, as seen when vivid narratives conjure the specter of bugbear stories to unsettle their audiences [2]. In other contexts, "bugbear" is used with humorous irony to refer to trivial annoyances or persistent irritations—like the vexation of an unappetizing dish—thus underlining its flexibility as a literary device that ranges from the gravely serious to the light-hearted [3]. Moreover, its application extends to encapsulating broader societal fears and ideological critiques, rendering the bugbear a potent symbol of both personal and cultural anxieties [4, 5].
- Webster derives the word from “hum,” to impose on, deceive, and “bug” a frightful object, a bugbear.
— from Words; Their Use and Abuse by William Mathews - and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door-stones?
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - I never can think of a variety—simple meat dishes are my bugbear."
— from A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes by Helen Cowles LeCron - But to the world no bugbear is so great, As want of figure, and a small estate.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope - If retribution terminate with the grave, morality is a mere chimera, a bugbear of human invention."
— from The Destiny of the Soul: A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger
