"one who plays a bugle," 1793; see bugle (n.). Bugle-boy attested from 1817.
Entries linking to bugler
bugle n.1
"brass musical instrument," mid-14c., abbreviation of buglehorn "musical horn, hunting horn" (c. 1300), from Old French bugle "(musical) horn," also "wild ox, buffalo," from Latin buculus "heifer, young ox," diminutive of bos "ox, cow" (from PIE root *gwou- "ox, bull, cow"). Middle English also had the word in the "buffalo" sense and it survived in dialect with meaning "young bull." Modern French bugle is a 19c. borrowing from English.
bugle v.
"sound a bugle," 1852, from bugle (n.). Related: Bugled; bugling (1847). Also compare bugler.