bogey

the word 'bogey' originates from the proper name 'bogey' or 'bogie', a variant of 'bogy', which itself is a pet form of the name 'bogle', a term for a goblin or specter. the name 'bogle' is of uncertain origin but is likely related to middle english 'bugge', meaning a frightening thing, and possibly to welsh 'bwg', meaning ghost. the semantic journey began with a personification of fear as a specific spectral entity, 'bogey', which then generalized to any source of dread. this sense of an elusive, troubling figure logically extended in the 20th century to military slang for an unidentified enemy aircraft and, in a more mundane but vivid metaphor, to a piece of nasal mucus. the golfing term, from the late 19th century, personifies the standard score for a hole as 'colonel bogey', an imaginary opponent who must be defeated.

the word is a simplex form. it is a loanword and proper name whose spelling and form have been anglicized, making internal morpheme segmentation based on the current english spelling not meaningful or accurate.