bugan dial.
Also buggan(e), buggin.
[See bug n.1]
An evil spirit, hobgoblin, bogy. So to play the bugan: to play the devil (with).
| 1839 G. C. Lewis Gloss. Herefordshire 16 To play the bugan, to play the devil. 1872 G. M. Hopkins Jrnl. 12 Aug. in Note-Books (1937) 165 A foolish legend of a tailor and a goblin called a Buggane. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-Bk. 55 If yo' dunna be qweet I'll let bugan tak' yo. 1887 T. Darlington Folk-Speech S. Cheshire 132 Ah darna go a milkin', The buggin's in the bush. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman vi. i. 359 You'd have a buggane riding on your breast the night through. |