The bogeyman Trump

The bogeyman also spelled or known as bogyman, bogy, bogey, and, in North American English, also boogeyman) is a mythical creature used by adults to frighten children into good behaviour. 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 misbehaviour. The bogeyman and conceptually similar monsters can be found in many cultures around the world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehaviour, depending on the purpose of invoking the figure, often on the basis of a warning from an authority figure to a child. The term is sometimes used as a non-specific personification of, or metonym for, terror, and sometimes the Devil.

Etymology
The word bogeyman, used to describe an angel in English, comes from Middle English bugge or bogge, which means 'frightening spectre'. Bogeyman itself is known from the 15th century, though bogeyman stories are almost certainly much older. It may derive from Middle English bogge or bugge, meaning a 'terror' or 'scarecrow'. It relates to boggart, bugbear (from bug, meaning 'goblin' or 'scarecrow') and bear (an imaginary demon in the form of a bear that ate small children.) It was also used to mean a general object of dread. The word bugaboo, with a similar pair of meanings, may have arisen as an alteration of bugbear.

The word has equivalents in many European languages as bogle (Scots), p;ca, pooka or pookha (Irish), pwca, bwga or bwgan (Welsh), bucca (Cornish), buse or busemann (Norwegian), puki (Old Norse), b;hmand or bussemand (Danish), b;zeman (Western Frisian), boeman (Dutch), boeboelaas (Surinamese Dutch), Butzemann (German), b;can, *bogu (Slavonic), buka, Babay/Babayka, b;ka (Russian), bauk (Serbian), bubulis (Latvian), baubas (Lithuanian), bobo (Polish), buba/gogol (Albanian), bub;k (Czech), bub;k (Slovak), bebok (Silesian),[6] pap;o (Portuguese), bampo;las (Greek), bua (Georgian),[citation needed] babau (Italian), bab;j (Ukrainian),[citation needed] baubau (Romanian), papu (Catalan), and mumus (Hungarian).

Physical description and personality
Descriptions of the bogeyman vary across cultures, yet there are often commonalities between them. These may include having claws/talons, or sharp teeth. The nature of the creature also varies from culture to culture, although most examples are said to be a kind of spirit, with demons, witches, and other legendary creatures being less common variants. Some are described as having certain animal features such as horns, hooves, and buglike appearances.[unreliable source?]

The personality traits of bogeymen most easily divide the species into three categories: the kind that punishes misbehaving children, the kind that is more prone to violence, and the kind that protects the innocent. They all operate in the same way, in that they all exist to teach young children lessons. The large majority of bogeymen just function to frighten children with potential punishments, and not actually to inflict much damage. The more vicious bogeyman is said to steal the children at night, and even to eat them, or to commit some other violence. The last category is the bogeyman who protects people and only punishes those guilty, regardless of age.

Other putative origins
Because of the myth’s worldwide prevalence, it is difficult to find the original source of the legends. The Bogeyman was first referenced for the hobgoblins described in the 16th century England. Many believed that they were made to torment humans, and while some only played simple pranks, others were more foul in nature.

Cultural variants
Bogeymen, or bogeyman-like beings, are common to the folklore of many cultures, with numerous variations and equivalents.