bogle
(ˈbəʊg(ə)l)
Forms: 5–6 bogil(l, 7 bogell, 8– bogle; 7–9 north. Eng. boggle.
[Of the various names bogle, boggard, bogy, applied to a goblin, bogle is the earliest known, being common in Scottish literature since 1500. In the present century its use by Burns, Scott, Hogg, and others has introduced it into English literature; but the special English form seems to be boggle (with short o as in boggard), found in north. Eng. dialects from Cumberland to Lincolnshire. The derivation of the whole group is uncertain: the primitive may be bogge, bog n.2, and this may be a variant of bugge, bug; which is not improbably a. Welsh bwg (= bug) ghost, bugbear, hobgoblin. The form of bogle, boggle, would still remain unexplained: it is perhaps worth while to compare Welsh bwgwl (= ˈbugul) ‘terror, terrifying’ (whence bygylu (bʌˈgʌly) to terrify), and bygel (or bugail) nos a hobgoblin of the night: see bug. But there are also German words of similar form and meaning, bögge and boggel-mann ‘a bogy, a bogle’: so that uncertainty attaches to the source. Cf. boggard.]
1. A phantom causing fright; a goblin, bogy, or spectre of the night; an undefined creature of superstitious dread. (Usually supposed to be black, and to have something of human attributes, though spoken of as it.) Also, applied contemptuously to a human being who is ‘a fright to behold’.
| c 1505 Dunbar Tua mariit Wem. 111 The luif blenkis of that bogill, fra his blerde ene. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 134 Like ane bogill all of ratland banis. 1646 R. Baillie Anabapt. (1647) 44 The Devils are nothing but only boggles in the night, to terrifie men. 1752 Scots Mag. (1753) Sept. 451/1 There used to be bogles seen. 1790 Burns Tam o'Shanter, Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares, Lest bogles catch him unawares. 1808 Cumbrian Ball. iii. 8 A boggle's been seen wi' twee heads. 1814 Scott Wav. lxxi, I played at bogle about the bush wi' them. 1822 T. Bewick Mem. 20, I had not..got over a belief in ghosts and boggles. 1824 Byron Juan xi. lxxii, A sort of sentimental bogle, Which sits for ever upon memory's crupper. 1832 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 281 Boggles and Barguests are the only supernatural beings we hear of in these parts [Keswick]. 1864 Tennyson North. Farmer viii, Theer wur a boggle in it, I often 'eerd un mysen. |
2. fig. and transf. a. A bugbear (not a phantom). b. A thing unsubstantial, a mere phantom.
| 1663 Lauderdale in Papers (1884) I. cvi. 185, I have written so much that I doe feare my hand shall grow a bug⁓beare, or as we say heir a bogell. 1792 Burns Despondency iii, The sillie bogles, wealth and state, Can never make them eerie. |
3. transf. A scarecrow. (In common use in north.)
| 1830 Galt Lawrie T. vii. ix. (1849) 343 Bogles made of clouts. 1884 Gd. Words May 324/2 Potato bogles or scarecrows..vary in size..and dress, in nearly every parish. |
Hence ˌbogle-ˈbo [see bo.] = bogle; ˈbogle-dom, the realm or domain of bogles.
| 1603 Philotus ii, Quhat reck to tak the Bogill-bo, My bonie burd for anis. 1678 Coles Lat. Dict., Boggle-bo..an ugly wide-mouthed picture carried about with May games. 1730–6 Bailey, Boggle-boe, a bugbear to fright Children, a scare crow. ? a 1800 Rhymes in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. v. 148 The bogle bo' of Billy Mire Wha kills our bairns a'. 1860 G. H. K. Vac. Tour 171 Donald! Donald! keep out of the regions of bogledom. |