bugaboo word
n.— «I hope he will be defeated so badly that the bugaboo word Imperialism will never be heard again.» —“What Republicanism Has Done in Wyoming” by Francis R. Warren Fort Wayne News (Indiana) Oct. 12, 1900. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1968, students at Cheyenne High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, compiled a collection of their own slang, including the word Clyde, used to refer to one’s head, as in Use your Clyde! This is part of a complete episode.
Related
Mary-Clare recalls that when she was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, everyone she knew used the term hoosier as a kind of teasing pejorative. If someone did something silly, others would say You’re such a hoosier, the adjective hoozh, or jokingly...