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boo n also bo OED bo [interjection]; bogy 1 'the devil'; EDD ~
sb1 'a louse'; cp OED bull-beggar ['bull-bear; bogy'] (1584-1851);
NID boogeyman, and variants 'an evil spirit'; J WIDDOWSON, Folklore lxxxii
(Summer, 1971), 99-115; for sense 4, cp Kilkenny Lexicon boo-man 'bogey-man.' See
also BULLY2 : BULLY-BOO.
1 Imaginary figure used
to terrify children into good behaviour.
1972 WIDDOWSON 74 I'm
going to tell the big boo to come and carry you away if you don't stop it. Ibid 278 Bo:
this was a man who lives underneath the house. Ibid 279 A small child will not go into a
dark room once someone has said: 'There are boos in there.'
2 A louse.
T 361/2-67 Be careful not
to sit by somebody, because she has boos in her head. P 108-70 A boo was a louse and a
nit was the egg. C 71-94 It was very easy to pick up head lice (boos).
3 Nasal mucus.
P 245--64
Boos—dried mucus in nose.
4 Comb boo-bagger:
see senses 1, 2, 3 above.
T 353-67 She would say, 'you got
boo-baggers in your nose.' T 360-67 Got boo-beggers in your head! M 68-24 Boo-bagger is
the name given to a supposedly evil person who chased and harmed bad little boys and
girls. C 71-122 [She] used to tell us that we looked like boo-baggers when we were
dressed untidily or in dirty clothes. 1973 WIDDOWSON 286 To frighten children in the dark
a parent might say, 'Watch out! The Boo-Baggers are in there.' 1975 GUY 158 Good luck to
bad rubbish. Devil's own boo-bagger. Hope he spends the next fifty years passing through
Liberal kidneys.
boo-darby: see sense 1 above; cp
DARBY.
C 67-5 If you go out tonight the Boo-darby will carry you
away. 1972 WIDDOWSON 84 Don't go down there! The boo-darbies are down there!
boo-man: the devil; see also senses 1, 3 above.
1887 Colonist Christmas No 16 No doubt, mothers sent their
children to sleep by threatening to give them to the old man of St Shotts; a Booman of
local growth raises the moral and social status of a district, and it is pleasant for the
resident ladies to feel independent of Japanese bogies and Teutonic jotuns for the uses
and purposes of child-scaring. 1903 Daily News 9 Sep "His Moustache": The prophet,
George Gushue, man, / Oh, 'tis now he cuts a dash, / By dad he's like a 'boo man,'/ Since
he cut off his moustache. 1969 Christmas Mumming in Nfld 72 The Boo Man (or the
Boo, a euphemism for the Devil) takes children 'down to his fire' if they misbehave or
lie. P 148-76 ~ dried mucus in the nose.
boo-man's hat:
toadstool; FAIRY CAP (P 80-64).
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