Ask The Tropers

What else would it be called?

I'm American and have never heard of "bugbear". They're always just "monsters".

"Boogeyman" is common parlance for "the monster in my closet/under my bed; would that work?

As I suggested in the TLP, it might be better for the title to address the "generic hairy monster" angle more directly, because of all the words anyone has suggested for this, they all also mean other things.

Incidentally, I see that Boogeyman isn't a page yet so maybe someone could TLP that.

This trope seems to mean specifically bugbears.

That people don't know what a bugbear is doesn't change that this is a trope about them, and thus the clearest name would involve the word bugbear.

This trope does not seem to be just about Boogeymen, which though similar to bugbears, are less confined in form, while bugbears are in forms just like the trope describes, so the trope would be less clear if we named it after boogeymen. In fact, if a boogeyman trope is made, bugbears would be a subtrope.

I agree with pikachu17. Whoever made that decision was not sufficiently well-informed. Bugbear is THE name for that variety of creature, so much as it has a name besides just "monster."

Isn't Things That Go "Bump" in the Night the trope for this? If so we don't even need to launch this.

You can say it, but that doesn't necessarily make it so. Is "bugbear" actually a widely used term with a distinctive usage from "boogeyman"? I genuinely don't know myself.

(Though I can't imagine Dungeons and Dragons helps in this regard, FWIW)

US Midwest here. Never heard of "bugbear" as a monster under the bed, not in any kids' literature or YA or other books nor in any TV shows. No one in any of my (huge) family used that word, nor any of my friends, nor my classmates. Even Terry Pratchett's Discworld books (UK) — which use a huge amount of odd words — just refer to them as boogeymen or boogey monsters.

Bugbear has always been a low-level Dungeons & Dragons monster. That was the first time I'd ever even seen the word in print, and the only times I've ever heard the word used. This discussion is the first time I've seen the word used to mean something fhat's NOT the D&D monster.

So no, it's not ubiquitous. The inverse of your argument applies, too: just because you know the term doesn't mean it's common usage. The fact that others are questioning it means it's not as common as you think.

I don't know everything, but with the sheer number of books I've read as a kid to now — and everything I still read — you'd think I'd've run across it in some context other than just AD&D Monster Manuals, especially if it's a common term. Lord knows I've picked up a ton of other weird, multicultural, outdated, uncommon, and downright strange slang & colloquialisms that way.

Wikipedia has a page on this concept.

^Partially ninjed due to having to find my dictionary.

I believe the Oxford English Dictionary lists the archaic use of the word bugbear as a creature used to frighten children, typically a type of hobgoblin. (the origin is apparently late 16th century probably from obsolete bug ‘bogey’). It doesn't mention anything about hiding in cupboards and under beds however.

I do agree that boggeyman is the more common usage for things that live under the bed and think that the D&D monster is the more recognisable modern usage, particularly on a site like this.

This is the first time I've heard of the word "bugbear". This case actually reminds me of a discarded TLP page called "Human Wishbone Pull", and nobody knew what a "wishbone" is.

My first times hearing Bugbear were all related to this trope as well :v

I've heard the term elsewhere, but I never really knew what it meant. I think I learned it from MLP:FIM, and that was a literal bug/bear hybrid monster, so it didn't exactly teach me anything.

Southeastern US here, and I totally thought it was a D&D monster, too, that had some kind of archaic basis for the name but not one I was familiar with.

N Kgamer brought up a good point about Things That Go "Bump" in the Night— as written, it sounds like this is about a specific subtype of Thing that bumps.

(People hadn't heard of a WISHBONE though?! Ouch, my aching back...)

Septimius, interesting wiki article, but even there, it doesn't say bugbears are the "monsters under the bed or in closets". It says that some cultures historically used the word as "a monster to frighten disobedient children"....which isn't the same thing at all, and "historically" implies the usage isn't current. Monsters Under The Bed (or in closets) are what children themselves imagine due to being scared of the dark, or seeing things in the shadows, or other nighttime fears. Parents don't threaten a kid with "go to sleep or the monster in your closet will get you", because that's guaranteed to scare the kid into NOT sleeping at all.

I mean, look at Calvin & Hobbes. Calvin has monsters under his bed, which he just calls "monsters". (Bill Watterson grew up here in Ohio, too) Look at Monsters Inc — the movie that's all about those Monsters In the Closet! Not once is "bugbear" used. Ditto The Bloom County comic: Binkley's Closet of Anxieties has a "Monster" In The Closet, not a bugbear.

The argument here is over whether "bugbear" is a common term for the monsters under the bed/closet to use it as a trope title. It's not. If extremely popular & well-known media like C&H or Monsters Inc or Bloom County or Sesame Street (etc etc etc) never used "bugbear", it's not a common, well-known term for "monster under the bed" at all.

Maybe set up a "bugbear" disambig page, with links to the D&D page and the Monster Under The Bed trope (after it's created). But any trope created for the concept should use The Monster Under The Bed or The Monster In the Closet as the main title — those are the common terms, and they define the concept exactly.

^^ Not all of us are American, and not all of us know English as their first language.

In the case of Human Wishbone Pulling, it didn't need to be called 'wishbone' since there are lots of ways you could name a trope about yanking people. But if we were to make a trope about the wishbone pulling superstition, it would have to have "wishbone" in the name since that's the actual colloquial term for the structure. Furcula is even less clear.

I think ^^ is the best way to go about it. The description for said Monster Under The Bed trope can mention "bugbear".

I have never heard the term outside of my Internet browsing, and I think I've heard of it more in metaphorical terms like "bugbear/bugaboo/" meaning "annoyance or obstruction" rather than a specific term for a type of monster. Boogeymen are a vague category, and I see the use for a word defining this type, though whether we're talking about an aesthetic (hairy indistinct monster) or a narrative (monster as moral deterrent for kids) should be settled.

I have never heard the term outside of my Internet browsing, and I think I've heard of it more in metaphorical terms like "bugbear/bugaboo/" meaning "annoyance or obstruction" rather than a specific term for a type of monster. Boogeymen are a vague category, and I see the use for a word defining this type, though whether we're talking about an aesthetic (hairy indistinct monster) or a narrative (monster as moral deterrent for kids) should be settled.

When I hear the word "bugbear", I think of the D&D monster, but I'm familiar with the usage "imageinary monster that scares you" - perhaps more in idioms such as "my personal bugbears". But I've never heard it used as a synonym for the monsters under the bed or in the closet that children are afraid of.

OK, this is getting a little bit long for ATT...

We could discuss that on the TLP. Not sure if there's an Our X's are Different forum thread for this.

Come one, come all.