TIL that the verb "bugger" as in buggery is derived from... Take it away, Online Etymology Dictionary:
from Medieval Latin Bulgarus "a Bulgarian," so called from bigoted notions of the sex lives of Eastern Orthodox Christians or of the sect of heretics [the Bogomils] that was prominent there 11c. Compare Old French bougre "Bulgarian," also "heretic; sodomite."
This sect, which appears to be basically one that believes in dualism (Satan as creator and possibly God's little brother), is named after the Bulgarian priest that founded it, Bogomil. Wikipedia provides further information:
"Buggery" first appears in English in 1330 with the sense "abominable heresy," though "bugger" in a sexual sense is not recorded until 1555. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology quotes a similar form—"bowgard" (and "bouguer"), but claims that the Bulgarians were heretics "as belonging to the Greek Church, sp. Albigensian." Webster's Third New International Dictionary gives the only meaning of the word "bugger" as sodomite, "from the adherence of the Bulgarians to the Eastern Church considered heretical."
The name of Bulgaria itself, of course, comes from the river Volga. They are the people of the Volg, or Bolg. So "buggery" is not derived from Bulgaria itself, but ultimately from a tenth-century heretical priest.
Those Bulgarians sure are cute little buggers!
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