By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Sometimes it takes someone not knowing a thing you took for granted to be able to look at it with fresh perspective. For instance, a paranormal podcaster I listen to recently noted that he wasn’t familiar with the term “boggle” to describe any of the devious trickster spirits of northern British and Scottish folklore. He noted the word game of the same name, but he didn’t mention the other definition of boggle – to be confused, astonished, or overwhelmed. (e.g., The possibilities boggle the mind!)
This was interesting to me because, in reporting what he learned about boggles – the more ambivalent than evil, but still dangerous, trickster spirit – he noted something that I already knew. That is that boggles (or bogles, or bogills) are folkloric creatures that exist more to “perplex the mind” than to cause serious harm. I knew it, but I never connected boggles, the perplexing pixies, with boggles, perplexing the mind.
Fair warning, I’m going to be a word nerd from here forward. We’re getting on the etymology train, bound for nuanced definition town. As I suspected, boggle – the word for being perplexed – is indeed derived from bogle – a perplexing goblin. (Goblin itself being a related term derived through Germanic language influences.) At least according to Merriam-Webster and others they are related.
Before I looked that up, though, I thought of another related term. Boggart.
Boggarts, like boggles, aren’t a specific type of fae, but rather a catch all term for a variety of spirits. However, unlike their perplexing yet ambivalent kin, boggarts are seen as generally malevolent. In some traditions brownies, benevolent household spirits in Scottish lore, are said to turn into boggarts if they are insulted or treated poorly. In these cases they will leave the family, but not before demolishing or undoing any recent work they may have done for the household. Sometimes they go even further, unraveling all the good work they’ve done for the family over the years and taking the family’s prosperity with them.
So, my mind wondered, if boggle is derived from bogle, surely bogart – that term for failing to share adequately – must be etymologically related to boggart, that wicked spirit that takes everything with him when he goes. Right?
Turns out, no. According to Merriam-Webster the term bogart, meaning to bully, or to use or consume without sharing, actually dates back to the 1960s, and was coined as a reference to actor Humphrey Bogart, who was nearly always pictured with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth that he didn’t seem to finish. Bogart also often played tough, hard to intimidate characters, with that image apparently contributing to the first definition.
Bogart, the act of being selfish, and boggarts, the selfless-turned-selfish household spirits, were not in fact related at all.
Boggart, however, is a linguistic cousin of our old friend boggle, as well as bogey (as in bogeyman, boogieman, or boogerman) goblins (Germanic boggel-mann) and – possibly – the Irish Gaelic bagairt, meaning “threat.”
Regardless, even if the terms bogart and boggart aren’t related (Humphrey’s surname is derived from an old Dutch term for an orchard, in case you were wondering) my curiosity led me on a merry trip down a fascinating little rabbit hole.
And a boggart would totally bogart the chips. That’s the kind of folk they are. I just hope I haven’t made one angry by pointing it out. Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
