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Published 01/10/24
bòcan m. [ˈb̥ɔːʰkan],
Wentworth 2003, s.v. bogey: [b̥ɔːʰkɑn]; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: (Lewis) [bɔ:kɑn] (sic); AFB˄: /bɔːxgan/; Dieckhoff 1932: [bò:Kgan].
gen. bòcain [ˈb̥ɔːʰkæɲ], ‘apparition, ghost, spectre, spirit, sprite; (hob)goblin’ (AFB˄). Mackay (1897, 96) derives SG bocan ‘hobgoblin’ from Ice. bakn ‘a monstrous thing’, but given his endemic disregard for lengthmarks, we should probably read bòcan and bákn, respectively. However, MacBain (1911) also cites GA bocan with a short stressed vowel,
So also McDonald (2009, 340).
comparing Ir. bocán ‘goblin’ and EG boccánach ‘some kind of (?goat-like) supernatural being usually associated with battle or battlefield’ (≈eDIL˄), so Ir. bocánach ‘goblin’ (Ó Dónaill 1977). It is probable that EG boccánach derives from EG boccán (+ the suffix -ach), from EG bocc ‘buck, he-goat’ (+ the suffix -án), all with short stressed vowels; so SG boc ‘buck’, bocan ‘little buck’ and the adjectival form bocanach ‘pertaining to little bucks’. However, while medial EG cc would be expected to yield preaspirated [ʰk] in Scottish Gaelic, short EG o would not be expected to yield long SG [ɔː] (or [oː]). On the other hand, long ON á might yield SG [ɔː] via vowel alternation, and the final cluster of ON bákn nt. ‘bogeyman, troll’
Cf. Old Frisian bāken (de Vries 1962; NO).
might be expected to yield [ʰk] in Scottish Gaelic,
Cf. ON -vatn nt. ‘lake’ > SG -bhat [vaʰt̪].
yielding [ˈb̥ɔːʰkan] with the addition of the Gaelic suffix -an. McDonald’s (2009, 340) bocan no doubt follows Mackay and MacBain; MacBain’s bocan (if not a ghost word) may intend SG pocan, pucan (see below), with a short stressed vowel.
MacBain suggests that a Celtic stem bukko- for EG bocc might be ‘allied to’ ON púki m. ‘devil’, and McDonald compares the development of ON púki m. > EG púca (leg. púcca, modern Ir. púca) m. ‘goblin, sprite’.
NB ‘ON púki > SG púka’ in McDonald 2009 is in error.
While Sebo (2017) argues that modern Eng. puck ‘imp’ derives from Irish, on phonological grounds it seems more likely that EG púcca derives from MEng. puca (whose long stressed vowel was later shortened), as suggested by Marstrander (1915a, 127
Correcting an earlier view (in Marstrander 1915b, 88) that Ir. púka (sic) derives from ON púki.
).
However, SG pocan (Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828) and pucan (Armstrong) m. ‘little squat fellow, impudent little fellow’, with a short stressed vowel, is probably (with the addition of the Gaelic suffix -an) from Scots pooky, puki ‘corpulent person, tubby little man; a very young baby’, itself from ON púki (SND˄; Jakobsen 1928: ‘infant dying unbaptised, unbaptised infant’).
SG bòcan, with its long stressed vowel, may also derive from Scots. SND˄ suggests that Scots bawcan
Also spelt baukin, bawkin, bockan.
[′bǫ:kən] ‘bogle, ghost’ is probably from SG bòcan, but it is suggested here that SG bòcan itself derives from Scots: SND˄ lists separately Marwick’s (1929) bawkie [ˈbǫ:ki] ‘bogle, spectre, ghost, apparition’ and bockie (also boki, bokie, boakie, bukki) [′bɔkɪ̢, ′bokɪ̢] ((Shetland) [boki, bɔki], (Unst) [bååki, båaki] (Jakobsen 1928)) ‘hobgoblin, scarecrow; (Shetland) ghost, bogey for frightening children’, both derived from ON bokki m. ‘bigwig, fellow’, cf. Nn. bokke ‘bigwig; bogeyman’.
Note that ON bokki (or bokka obl.) itself would not be expected to yield SG [b̥ɔːʰk(ə)].
,
Ir. boc m. in the sense ‘fellow’ and boc mór in the sense ‘bigwig’ (Ó Dónaill 1977) may simply be semantic extensions of Ir. boc ‘buck’. For EG boccán, eDIL˄ (s.v. 2bocán) gives ‘(a) he-goat, (b) name of plant [Stokes 1888a, 231: “toadstool”]’, but the relationship between the Irish variants bocán ((Donegal) bocan [bɔkɑn] (Quiggin 1906, 12)), bacán and beacán ‘mushroom’ is not quite clear: the stressed vowel of the generic in the phrase bocán bearaigh ‘mushroom’ (var. bacán bearaigh with vowel alternation) may have simply been adapted to the stressed vowel of the following adjectival element, viz. bearaigh, gen. sg. of bearach f. ‘heifer’, but this does not account for the Munster variant báighcán (pers. comm. Professor Seòsamh Watson).
While a development of SG bòcan from Scots bawkie (with a long stressed vowel) assumes the addition of the suffix -an in Gaelic, SG bòcaidh m. [ˈb̥ɔːʰki] ‘terrifying object, bogey’ (HSS; Wentworth 2003, s.v. bogey: [b̥ɔːʰki]) likely constitutes a more direct reflex of the Scots word.
(In support of the stressed vowel of SG bòcan being the result of lengthening in Scottish Gaelic itself, Henry (1959, 405) compares apparently similar lengthening in SG bròg ‘sorrowful’ and bòc ‘to swell, inflame’. Pedersen (1913 I, 159) assumes that EG brocc m. ‘displeasure, vexation; anxiety, distress’ (eDIL˄, s.v. 1broc) yields SG bròg under the influence of SG bròg f. ‘shoe’, q.v., for example in the context of the expression buailidh e bròg ort fhathast ‘you will feel the bad effects of that hereafter’, whereas, as O’Rahilly (1927, 22–23) points out, the word being used in such expressions is ‘nothing more than a figurative application of bròg “shoe”’ (cf. HSS, s.v. bròg).
O’Rahilly (ibid.) argues that EG brocc (later sproc, which in turn yields Ir. sprocht, Mx sproght and SG sprochd) is a loan from OEng. broc ‘affliction, trouble’.
For SG bòc vb ‘to swell’, MacBain (1911) compares Ir. bócaim ‘I swell’, for which one might compare EG bócáil ‘bragging’, bócálach ‘proud, boastful’, bócálta ‘ostentatious’ (eDIL˄) and Ir. (Waterford) bóiceáil ‘boast’ (Breatnach 1984, 52). While eDIL˄ connects the Early Gaelic forms with EG bocás ‘boasting, bragging’ (< EG boc ‘soft’), inferring medial <c> /ɡ/ [ɡ], it may be that we should read <cc> /k/ [k], hence Ir. bóiceáil, above. If so, SG bòc- and Ir bóc- might conceivably have arisen from a form and/or usage of Eng. and/or Scots poke ‘bag, small sack’, which yield both SG poca and pòca (now generally ‘sack’ and ‘pocket’, respectively).
For the variation in vowel length in historical forms of Eng./Scots poke, see OED˄, s.v. 1poke.
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