Re: CELT: Welsh Goblin seeks etymology

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@MACLINE.CO.UK>]

At 19:55 2/4/98, Andrew Smith wrote:
>I have been working through Herman Miller's Zarkhand list, some words in
>Brithenig that can be adapted to roleplaying would not go amiss, but
>finding the right word for 'goblin' is causing to be tricky.  I think it
>should be derived from bwca or bwgan (Gaelic bocan), but I can't find a
>reliable etymology for the word to find the Brithenig form.  Does anyone
>have access to a reliable source?

No - but the word is "British" in the broadest sense.  Scots English has
'bogle' and 'boggard' (= goblin, spectre), and south of the border it is
'bogy', 'bogey', 'bog(e)yman' and this, I believe, has crossed the
Atlantic.  In Middle English we had 'bugge' (= goblin) from which is
derived modern English 'bug' which has not merely crossed the Atlantic but
has now been spead by computer-geeks arounfd the globe!

I think it's difficult to see some connexion also with 'puck' (= goblin,
imp) <-- Old English "pu'ca", cf. Old Norse "pu'ki", Irish "puca", Welsh
"pwca".

Ray.

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Written in Net English        Humor not necessarily marked

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