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30-612: The bogeyman ( / ˈ b oʊ ɡ i m æ n / ; also spelled or known as bogyman , bogy , bogey , and, in North American English , also boogeyman ) is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine or androgynous monsters that punish children for misbehavior . The bogeyman, and conceptually similar monsters can be found in many cultures around

60-585: A gnome , man, animal, monster , ghost or devil ). They are sometimes said to appear at very specific places (such as in forests, at bodies of water, cliffs, cornfields or vineyards). These figures are called by many different names, which are often only regionally known. One of these, possibly etymologically related to the Bogeyman, is the Butzemann  [ de ] , which can be of gnome-like and other demonic or ghostly appearance. Other examples include

90-489: A bug-like appearance. Because of the myth's global prevalence, it is difficult to find the original source of the legends. The Bogeyman was first referenced for the hobgoblins described in the 16th century England. Many believed that they were made to torment humans, and while some only played simple pranks, others were more foul in nature. Bogeymen, or bogeyman-like beings, are common to the folklore of many cultures, with numerous variations and equivalents. The Sack Man

120-508: A chi lo do? Lo darò all' uomo nero, che lo tiene un anno intero." (English: "Lullaby Lulla Oh, who do I give this child to? I will give him to the Boogeyman, who's going to keep him for a whole year") L'uomo nero is not supposed to eat or harm children, but instead takes them away to a mysterious and frightening place. German folklore has dozens of different figures that correspond to the Bogeyman. These have various appearances (such as of

150-501: A domestic hobgoblin or brownie, known as a Lubbar Fend (or lubber fiend ) and described as strong and hairy, threshes the corn then lays by the fireplace enjoying his bowl of cream that he earns as payment. In the earlier play The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) by Francis Beaumont , a similar being is known as Lob-Lie-by-the-Fire , described as a giant and the son of a witch . Folklorist K. M. Briggs stated that

180-455: A series of short novels written for children which contain a large number of characters from Brazilian folklore. In the countries of central and Eastern Mediterranean , children who misbehave are threatened with a creature known as "babau" (or "baubau", "baobao", "bavbav", or بعبع "Bu'Bu'" or similar). In Italy , the Babau is also called l'uomo nero or "black man". In Italy, he is portrayed as

210-503: A similar character called Cuca is depicted as a female humanoid alligator, or an old lady with a sack. There is a lullaby sung by many parents to their children that says that the Cuca will come to get them and make a soup, or soap out of them if they do not sleep, just as in Spain. The Cuca is also a character of Monteiro Lobato 's Sítio do Picapau Amarelo ("Yellow Woodpecker's Farm"),

240-467: A tall man wearing a heavy black coat, with a black hood or hat which hides his face. Sometimes, parents will knock loudly under the table, pretending that someone is knocking at the door, and say something like: "Here comes l'uomo nero ! He must know that there's a child here who doesn't want to drink his soup!". It is also featured in a widespread nursery rhyme in Italy: "Ninna nanna, ninna oh, questo bimbo

270-573: Is el roba-chicos , meaning "child-stealer". Similar legends are present in Eastern Europe (e.g. Bulgarian Torbalan , "sack man"), as well as in Haiti and some countries in Asia. El Coco (also El Cuco and Cucuy , sometimes called El Bolo ) is another version of the Bogeyman, common to many Spanish-speaking countries. The Cuca Fera  [ ca ] (or Cucafera ) monster

300-442: Is a Scottish domestic hobgoblin that is mischievous and belligerent but also very helpful when the need arises. The bwbach (or boobach, plural bwbachod) is a Welsh domestic hobgoblin that will perform household chores in return for bowls of cream. They are good-natured but mischievous and have a dislike of clergymen and teetotalers , upon whom they will play relentless pranks. In the poem " L'Allegro " (1645) by John Milton

330-449: Is a source of (often imagined) fear or trouble. The best-known example of this usage is probably Ralph Waldo Emerson 's line, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", from the essay Self-Reliance . Hobgoblins exist in the works of Tolkien as a larger kind of orc , though they are not prominently featured. In the preface of The Hobbit , he states that " Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places but

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360-693: Is a variant of the Bogeyman folklore which, as its name suggests, stuffs children in a sack. It predominantly exists in Latin American cultures, such as Argentina , Uruguay , Chile , Paraguay , Brazil; as well as Latin Europe, in both Portugal and Spain . It is sometimes referred to as el Hombre del costal , el hombre de la bolsa , el hombre del saco , or in Portuguese, o homem do saco (all of these names either meaning "the sack man" or "the bag man"). Another Spanish language variation

390-706: Is food. While brownies are more peaceful creatures, hobgoblins are more fond of practical jokes. They also seem to be able to shapeshift, as seen in one of Puck's monologues in A Midsummer Night's Dream . Robin Goodfellow is perhaps the most mischievous and most infamous of all his kind, but many are less antagonizing. Like other fairy folk , hobgoblins are easily annoyed. They can be mischievous, frightening, and even dangerous. Attempts to give them clothing will often banish them forever, though whether they are offended by such gifts or are simply too proud to work in new clothes differs from teller to teller. The bauchan

420-597: Is more usually called El Cuco , as in Puerto Rico , the Dominican Republic , Chile , Uruguay , Panama and Argentina . Among Mexican-Americans, El Cucuy is portrayed as an evil monster that hides under children's beds at night and kidnaps or eats those who do not obey his/her parents by going to sleep when it is time to do so. However, the Spanish American bogeyman does not resemble

450-432: Is the equivalent in certain parts of Catalonia. In Spain , parents will sing lullabies and tell rhymes to children, warning them that if they do not sleep, El Coco will come to get them. The rhyme originated in the 17th century and while it has evolved over the years, it has still retained its original meaning to this day. Coconuts ( Spanish : coco ) received their name because of the hairy, brown "face" created by

480-460: The Buhmann (who is mostly proverbial) and der schwarze Mann ("The Black Man"), an inhuman creature which hides in the dark corners under the bed or in the closet and carries children away. The figure is part of the children's game Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann? ("Who is afraid of the bogeyman?"). North American English North American English is the most generalized variety of

510-714: The English language as spoken in the United States and Canada . Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of American English and Canadian English , the two spoken varieties are often grouped together under a single category. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, with British spellings of certain words (e.g., colour ) preferred in more formal settings and in Canadian print media; for some other words

540-580: The United States and Canada . In North America, different English dialects of immigrants from England , Scotland , Ireland , and other regions of the British Isles mixed together in the 17th and 18th centuries. These were developed, built upon, and blended together as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, developed new dialects in new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged with and assimilated to

570-998: The American spelling prevails over the British (e.g., tire rather than tyre ). Dialects of American English spoken by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution (1775–1783) have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States (for example, the terms diaper and gasoline are widely used instead of nappy and petrol ). Although many English speakers from outside North America regard those terms as distinct Americanisms , they are just as common in Canada, mainly due to

600-400: The bogeyman vary across cultures, yet there are often commonalities between them including claws/talons, or sharp teeth. The nature of the creature also varies from culture to culture, although most examples are said to be a kind of spirit, with demons , witches , and other legendary creatures being less common variants. Some are described as having animal features such as horns, hooves, or

630-670: The coconut shell's three indentations, which reminded the Portuguese sailors of "Coco". Latin America also has El Coco , although its folklore is different, commonly mixed with native beliefs and, because of cultural contacts, sometimes more closely related to the North American version of the Boogeyman. However, the term El Coco is also used in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, such as Bolivia , Colombia , Guatemala , Peru , Mexico , El Salvador , Honduras , and Venezuela , although there it

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660-461: The effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially as spoken in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island where significant pockets of British culture still remain. There are a considerable number of different accents within the regions of both

690-1179: The form of a bear that ate small children. It was also used to mean a general object of dread. The word bugaboo , with a similar pair of meanings, may have arisen as an alteration of bugbear . Bogeyman itself is known from the 15th century, though bogeyman stories are likely to be much older. The word has equivalents in many European languages as bogle ( Scots ), púca , pooka or pookha ( Irish ), pwca , bwga or bwgan ( Welsh ), bucca ( Cornish ), buse or busemann ( Norwegian ), puki ( Old Norse ), bøhmand or bussemand ( Danish ), bûzeman ( Western Frisian ), boeman ( Dutch ), boeboelaas ( Surinamese Dutch ), Butzemann ( German ), bòcan , * bogu ( Slavonic ), buka , Babay/Babayka , búka ( Russian ), bauk ( Serbian ), bubulis ( Latvian ), baubas ( Lithuanian ), bobo (babok,bebok) ( Polish ), buba/gogol ( Albanian ), bubák ( Czech ), bubák ( Slovak ), bebok ( Silesian ), papão ( Portuguese ), bampoúlas ( Greek ), bua ( Georgian ), babau (also "uomo nero", meaning black man)( Italian ), babáj ( Ukrainian ), baubau ( Romanian ), papu (Catalan), and mumus ( Hungarian ). Descriptions of

720-522: The greater American dialect mixture that solidified by the mid-18th century. Below, several major North American English accents are defined by particular characteristics: A majority of North American English (for example, in contrast to British English) includes phonological features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (full pronunciation of all /r/ sounds), conditioned T-glottalization (with satin pronounced [ˈsæʔn̩] , not [ˈsætn̩] ), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced

750-686: The same), at least one of the LOT vowel mergers (the LOT – PALM merger is completed among virtually all Americans and the LOT – THOUGHT merger among nearly half, while both are completed among virtually all Canadians), and yod-dropping (with tuesday pronounced /ˈtuzdeɪ/ , not /ˈtjuzdeɪ/ ). The last item is more advanced in American English than Canadian English. Hobgoblin The term "hobgoblin" comes from " hob ". The earliest known use of

780-454: The same, as [ˈmɛɾɫ̩] ), L-velarization (with filling pronounced [ˈfɪɫɪŋ] , not [ˈfɪlɪŋ] ), as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before /r/ (so that, Mary , marry , and merry are all commonly pronounced the same ), raising of pre-voiceless /aɪ/ (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride ), the weak vowel merger (with affected and effected often pronounced

810-415: The shapeless or hairy monster of Spain: social sciences professor Manuel Medrano says popular legend describes el cucuy as a small humanoid with glowing red eyes that hides in closets or under the bed. "Some lore has him as a kid who was the victim of violence... and now he's alive, but he's not," Medrano said, citing Xavier Garza 's 2004 book Creepy Creatures and other Cucuys ." In Brazilian folklore,

840-460: The two creatures are generally equated. Briggs's own fantasy novel, Hobberdy Dick (1955), is about a hobgoblin that lives in the home of a 17th century Puritan family. In a 1684 hymn Bunyan couples the hobgoblin with "a foul fiend ", as two monstrous beings who try (and fail) to "daunt the Pilgrim's spirit". The term "hobgoblin" is used sometimes to mean a superficial object that

870-416: The word can be traced to about 1530, although it was likely in use for some time prior to that. Hobgoblins seem to be small, hairy little men who, like their close relatives the brownies , are often found within human dwellings, doing odd jobs around the house while the family is asleep. Such chores are typically small tasks like dusting and ironing. Often, the only compensation necessary in return for these

900-723: The world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehaviour, depending on the purpose of invoking the figure, often on the basis of a warning from an authority figure to a child. The term is sometimes used as a non-specific personification of, or metonym for, terror – and sometimes the Devil . The word bogeyman , used to describe a monster in English, may have derived from Middle English bugge or bogge , which means 'frightening specter', 'terror', or ' scarecrow '. It relates to boggart , bugbear (from bug , meaning 'goblin' or 'scarecrow' and bear ) an imaginary demon in

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