Re: CELT: Welsh Goblin seeks etymology

[Don Blaheta <dpb@CS.BROWN.EDU>]

Quoth Raymond A. Brown:
> 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!

Bogeyman has definitely made it over here; presumably related are
"bugaboo", "bugbear"; possibly "hobgoblin"?

> 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".

Isn't a pouka a spirit-horse?  What language is that from?  (Trivia
note: the dog in the movie Anastasia is named "Pooka".  Presumably no
relation. ;)

--
-=-Don Blaheta-=-=-dpb@cs.brown.edu-=-=-<http://www.cs.brown.edu/~dpb/>-=-
A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an exam.