A bugbear is a legendary creature

Legendary creature

A legendary creature is a mythological or folkloric creature.-Origin:Some mythical creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and have been believed to be real creatures, for example the dragon, the unicorn, and griffin...

 or type of hobgoblin

Hobgoblin

Hobgoblin is a term typically applied in folktales to describe a friendly but troublesome creature of the Seelie Court.The most commonly known hobgoblin is the character Puck in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck, however, is only another name given to a much older character named Robin...

 comparable to the bogeyman

Bogeyman

A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...

, bogey

Bogey

Bogey or Bogie may refer to:* Bogeyman, boogeyman, boogyman, or bogyman, a legendary ghost-like monster with no specific appearance** Boggart, a mischievous household spirit** Bogle, a ghost in Scottish or northern English folklore...

, bugaboo

Bugaboo

A Bugaboo is a legendary scary creature, see bogeymanIn geography:* The Bugaboos, a granite mountain range in the Purcell Mountains of eastern British Columbia, Canada** Bugaboo Provincial Park, a park in that area...

, and other creatures of folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren. Its name is derived from an old Celtic word bug for evil spirit or goblin. In medieval England, the Bugbear was depicted as a creepy bear that lurked in the woods to scare children; it was described in this manner in an English translation of a 1565 Italian play The Buggbear.

In a modern context, the term bugbear serves as a metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

 for something which is annoying or irritating. It may also mean "pet peeve." Bugbear is also another term for scarecrow

Scarecrow

A scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...

.