1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. ‘He bug’d me a quid.’ ‘Bug over the
rag.’
Bugaroch, adj. (Old Irish).—Pretty; comely; handsome.—Grose.
Bug-Blinding, subs. (military).—Whitewashing operations.
Bugger, subs. (old).—1. A thief whose speciality is stealing
breast-pins from drunken men. [From bug, a cant term for a breast pin,
+ (g) ger.] Also called a bug hunter. For synonymous terms, see
Area-sneak and Bug-hunter.
2. (low.)—A man; a fellow. A coarse term of abuse without, however, any
reference to the legal meaning—a sodomite. The French has an exact
equivalent in Bougre, which Littré says is une terme de mépris et
d’injure, usité dans le langage populaire le plus trivial et le plus
grossier. The term, as applied to a man, is equivalent to bitch (q.v.),
as applied to women. Hence also buggery (q.v.).
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, I., 59. From every trench the bougers fly.
[M.]
1854. M. Holmes, Tempest and Sun, 203. ‘If I’d known all you city
buggers was comin’, I’d a kivered my bar feet.’ [M.]
Buggery, adj. (low).—An indefinite expression signifying disgust; or
disapprobation. Of the same type as bloody, blamed, blasted, etc.
(q.v.), but conveying a somewhat intenser meaning.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 23. A buggery
fool, why don’t he let people go to hell their own way? Ibid, p.
180. Here mother, give us one of your buggery trotters.
Buggy, subs. (old).—A leather bottle.
Bugher.—See Buffer.
Bug-Hunter, subs. (thieves’).—A thief who plunders drunken men. The
same as bugger, sense 1.
French Synonyms. Un poivrier (popular and thieves’); un allumeur (this
term is also applied to an auction room ‘button’ or confederate, and to
a card-sharper’s decoy); faire un louave, or faire les gavés (to go
bug-hunting. Louave and gavé = drunkard, the latter from gaver, to
glut).
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who hocus or
plunder persons by stupefying; as ‘drummers,’ who drug liquor, and
‘bug-hunters,’ who plunder drunken men.