bogey

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an evil spirit or source of fear; in golf, one over par

   He finished the round with three bogeys.

Simplified etymology

Bogey, recorded from the mid-19th century, meant an evil or mischievous spirit and was also a dialect name for the devil. It is associated with bogle, “a phantom or goblin,” and with a wider group of words for evil spirits or frightening things, including boggart, bug, and bugbear. Bogey has also been proposed as a possible source of bogus, although that derivation is uncertain.

Of obscure origin, related to the dialectal bogle and boggart and possibly to Middle English bugge ('frightening specter'); the golf sense ('one over par') derives from a 19th-century allusion to an imaginary opponent, the 'Bogey Man.'

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary