Finally found the bravado to make my board debut with this interesting and worthy word: bogart. After legendary
actor/movie-star Humphrey Bogart (thus the 'cool' icon!). Bogart, as a verb, started back in the 60's with the expression "don't Bogart that joint!" But now it's become a common rebuke to direct toward anyone prone to hogging-it-all-for-themselves in any situation, i.e. "don't bogart the bed!"..."he's bogarting all the pizza!"..."hey, c'mon, you're not going to bogart that, are you?" Anymore input on this? Perhaps it was coined sometime before the 60's when Humphrey Bogart was at the height of his career? (And also, by the way, not a bad entry for Oscar night, is it?)

What do you know about Bogart's favorite drink, and who the hell *was* Mickey Finn, anyway?

Welcome, bogart the board, Whitman, bogart the board!

the ostensible connection between the actor and impolite marijuana usage is the way Bogart would keep a cigarette dangling from his mouth for extended periods with removing it.

don't bogart the ball, whitman.

i do not dispute this dangling-cigarette etymology but have often wondered about a possible connection between bogue and bogart, as well as between these two and bogus. anyone have any memories or documentation of bogue? i can recall pot-smokers reanalyzing (folk-etymologizing) bogart as bogue+art, i.e. elevating selfishness to an art form.
- ph

Then there is the Boggart (extra "g") which is a usually troublesome spirit that could take many shapes when it decides to appear at all. Good ones were seen in the same light as brownies, helping out with chores, etc. The bad Boggarts liked to trip people, slam doors, destroy property and just generally scare people -- sometimes with fatal results.

Ali

The bad Boggarts...

Hence the other expression from that era: "Bad trip, man!"

hence bogeyman?

hence bogeyman?

Apparently, they are similar to the Boggart in some ways, but are their own creature. I had a look in my book of Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins, An Encyclopedia by Carol Rose, and this is what she had to say:

"This [bogeyman] is a type of bogie also known as Booger Man, in the folklore of the mainland areas of Britain. It appeared in a fearsome and grotesque human shape in lonely places, terrifying people traveling alone on the roads at night. This spirit is known as the Booman in the Orkney and Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland. More recently the use has been more in keeping with that of a nursery bogie."

Under Bogie, she goes on to describe that it is a class of frightening goblin or bugbear in English folklore.

Boggarts (also known as a Bag, Boggard, Buggard) originated in North Country English folklore, and is related more to a spirit or hobgoblin.

Interesting read, if you like folklore. I've been longwinded now, but I can't help it. I enjoy the stuff.

Ali

<<This spirit is known as the Booman...>>

And, again, hence "boo!"?

Thanks--not at all vocuscious.

This is Binky, wishing you a pleasant from the rings of Saturn, signing off.

I have heard that bogeyman came from the Bugis (pronounced boo-gee (g as in good), some ethnic groups pronounce the s and some don't) people of SE Sulawesi, who were much feared as pirates in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bingley

Didn't realize there were so many posts...they stopped coming to my mailbox after tsuwm's, which is the one I wanted to reply to. Sorry I took so long getting back. But the 'dangling cigarette' signature -style of Bogie's
screen persona is an insightful perspective on the coining of the word. I always thought it was due to his tough-man image. You know, "If I want to hang on to this for awhile, who's gonna take it back from me?" But the dangling cigarette makes a lot more sense in light of the pot-smoking etiquette coinage...for, as many of us know, this crowd was prone to be a more docile bunch...a macho, violent image would be less cool. Thanks, tsuwm!
Also, in regards to the other lineage of Boggart to bogeyman...is this the declension of 'booger' for snot as well?

I live right near Boggart Hole Clough in the North West of England. I always knew boggarts to be mischevious and sometimes malaevolent goblin creatures who eat teaspoons and can be helpful if supplied with milk

Dear dodyskin: Boggarts may be in US also. There is always an unexplained shortage of teaspoons.

an unexplained shortage of teaspoons.

Perhaps not so unexplained, silver spoons being both valuable and portable:
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), The Conduct of Life, “Worship,” (1870).