The Bogeyman (/ˈbəʊɡimæn, ˈboʊɡi-/;[1] also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, boogieman, boogie monster, boogie man, or boogie-woogie) is a type of mythical creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine or androgynous monsters that punish children for misbehavior.[2] The Bogeyman or conceptually similar monsters can be found in many cultures around the world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehavior, depending on what purpose needs serving, often based on a warning from the child's authority figure. The term "Bogeyman" is sometimes used as a non-specific personification or metonym for terror, and in some cases, the Devil.[3] The word bogey is believed to be derived from the Middle English boggy / bugge ("something frightening", "scarecrow"). Theories on its origin include a root meaning "goat", or a cognate of the German bögge, böggel-Mann ("goblin"). It could be influenced in meaning by Old English -budda used in compounds for "beetle".[4] A related word, bugbear, from the bug, meaning goblin or scarecrow, and bear, was imagined as a demon in the form of a bear that eats small children and was also used to mean a general object of dread.[5] The word bugaboo, with a similar pair of meanings, may have arisen as an alteration of a bugbear.[6]
The word could also be linked to many similar words in other Indo-European: bogle (Scots), bûzeman (Western Frisian), bowman (Dutch), Butzemann (German), Bussmann (Norwegian), bøhmand / busses and (Danish), bòcan, púca, pooka or pookah (Irish), pica, began or began (Welsh), puki (Old Norse), bucca (Cornish), puck (English), bogu (Slavonic), buka or babay/babayka (Russian, бука), bauk (Serbian), bubbles (Latvian), baubles (Lithuanian), bobo (Polish), bubák (Czech), bubák (Slovak), bebop (Silesian), papão (Portuguese), babulas (Greek, μπαμπούλας), but (Georgian, ბუა), babau (Italian), бабай (Ukrainian), babara (Romanian), and Papua (Catalan).[7]
In Southeast Asia, the term is popularly supposed to refer to Bugis[8] or Buganese[9] pirates, ruthless seafarers of southern Sulawesi, Indonesia's third-largest island. These pirates often plagued early English and Dutch trading ships of the British East India Company and Dutch East India Company. It is popularly believed that this resulted in the European sailors bringing their fear of the "bugi men" back to their home countries. However, etymologists disagree with this, because words relating to bogeyman were in common use centuries before European colonization of Southeast Asia.