banana skin vs bugbear

banana skin

noun
  • A cause of difficulty, or potential embarrassment. 

  • The outer skin of a banana, especially once removed from the rest of the banana, which may be slippery if stepped on. 

bugbear

noun
  • A source of dread; resentment; or irritation. 

  • An ongoing problem; a recurring obstacle or adversity. 

verb
  • To alarm with idle phantoms. 

How often have the words banana skin and bugbear occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )