19 Jun
2021
19 Jun
'21
1:57 p.m.
On Friday, 18 June 2021 at 16:19:37 -0400, John Cowan wrote:
On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 5:57 PM Steffen Nurpmeso
<steffen(a)sdaoden.eu> wrote:
Well, there are ways to check these things, especially since Steffen
came up with alternatives. As they say, âWas weià Duden?â.
From https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Boeoegg:
wohl gekürzt aus älter schweizerisch Böggelmann, Bölimann =
Schreckgestalt, Kobold, Herkunft ungeklärt; vgl. als ähnliche
Bezeichnung englisch bog(e)y (man) = Schreckgespenst, litauisch
bužỹs = (ausgestopfte) Schreckgestalt
In other words, a Swiss German word with a derivation similar to what
you expected. I hadn't expected that (the Swiss connection). The OED
entry is way out of date (1887) and has nothing useful to say except:
Found in literature only recently; old people vouched (1887) for its
use in the nursery as early as 1825, but only as proper name (sense
1). Possibly a southern nursery form of bogle , boggle , and boggard
, or going back like them to a simpler form which, as mentioned
under bog n.1 and bogle n., may be a variant of bugge , bug n.1
âterror, bugbear, scarecrowâ. But in the absence of evidence,
positive statements concerning its relation to these words cannot be
made.
Greg
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(Only to clarify that ???bögge??? is not a
German word to the best of my
knowledge. I was looking, as it sounded so »northern«,
And so it is: it's Low Saxon, and also exists in the compound form
"böggel-mann", plainly cognate to British English "bogeyman",
American
English "boogeyman".