This week’s theme
Linked words

This week’s words
gung ho
ho-hum
humbug
bugbear
bear leader

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BUHG-bair)

MEANING:

noun: A source of fear, problem, anxiety, or annoyance.

ETYMOLOGY:

A bugbear is an imaginary creature, invoked to frighten unruly children. From bug (hobgoblin) + bear, from Old English bera, ultimately from the Indo-European root bher- (bright, brown), which also gave us brown, bruin, brunet/brunette, burnish, and berserk. Earliest documented use: 1552.

USAGE:

“Dr Wu says there are multiple reasons for the slowdown ... The biggest bugbear is the guidelines against doctors advertising here, with the greatest impact coming from the ban on the use of ‘before and after’ pictures.”
Cheah Ui-Hoon; Cutting Edge Beauty; The Business Times (Singapore); Jan 28, 2017.

See more usage examples of bugbear in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: