Etymology

bogeyman

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Today it means: A menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories. Full definition →

Middle English man ← Old English mann ← Proto-West Germanic *mann
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The story

  1. Englishbogey
  2. Proto-Indo-European*mon-
  3. Proto-Germanic*mann-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*mann
  5. Old Englishmann
  6. Middle Englishman
  7. English todaybogeyman

From bogey + -man.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.