1895, "crazy, insane," from bug (n.) + house (n.); probably originally tramps' jargon. As a noun, from 1891 as "insanity," 1898 as "insane asylum."
IT is often the case in the Penitentiary, as well as in the out side world, that men get "wheels in their head," and "talk through their hats." When a "boy" gets in this "offish" state the prisoners call him "buggy" he becomes a bug-a-boo, and to keep him safe so that he can hurt no one, nor destroy himself, he is duly examined, and when adjudged "bugy" is placed for safe keeping in the "Bug House." [Dan J. Morgan, "Historical Lights and Shadows of the Ohio Penitentiary," 1898]
also bed-bug, "blood-sucking insect that infests beds and bedding," 1772, from bed (n.) + bug (n.).
[The bed bug] is supposed to have been first introduced to this country in the fir timber that was brought over to rebuild London after it had suffered by the great fire; for it is generally said that Bugs were not known in England before that time, and many of them were found almost immediately afterwards in the new-built houses. [the Rev. W. Bingley, "Animal Biography; or Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy of the Animal Creation," London, 1803]
Thus it shares ancestry with many dialect words for "ghost, specter," such as bog/bogge (attested 16c.-17c.), bogeyman (16c.), boggart "specter that haunts a gloomy spot" (c. 1570, in Westmoreland, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire). The earliest modern form appears to be Scottish bogle "ghost," attested from c. 1500 and popularized c. 1800 in English literature by Scott, Burns, etc.
"bedbug," 1620s, from Spanish/Portuguese chinche (diminutive chinchilla) "bug," from Latin cimicem (nominative cimex) "bedbug," a word of uncertain origin. Related: Chinch-bug.
type of Mexican cactus (which supports the cochineal bug), 1730, from American Spanish, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) nopalli.
1580s, Latin, "bug, bedbug," also a term of reproach, of uncertain origin. Related: Cimicic; cimiceous "buggy;" cimicine "smelling of bugs" (1849).
small South American rodent, 1590s, from Spanish, literally "little bug," diminutive of chinche (see chinch); perhaps a folk-etymology alteration of a word from Quechua (Inca) or Aymara.
