The word bugger entered Middle English in the sense ‘heretic’, from Old French bougre. It was used of members of a heretical Christian sect based in Albi in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries (the Albigensians). The word ultimately comes from Latin Bulgarus, meaning ‘Bulgarian’: Bulgarians belonging to the Orthodox Church were regarded as heretical by Roman Catholics. The sexual meaning of the term arose in the 16th century from an association of heresy with forbidden sexual practices.