bugger [ME] A bugger was originally a heretic—this was the meaning of Old French bougre. The word ultimately comes from Bulgarus, which was the Latin term for a Bulgarian, in particular one who belonged to the Orthodox Church, which was regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical. Bugger was first used in English in reference to members of a heretical Christian sect based in Albi in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Albigensians. The sexual use of the term arose in the 16th century from an association of heresy with forbidden sexual practices.