of bugs and balls

[darkoshi]

Errant thought from a while back:

"I remember when mice used to have balls."

.

I'd been trying to remember this word: Boggart, which I once learned from a Susan Cooper book, as I could imagine a boggart being behind the weird bug-related mystery I've been trying to solve.

After a while, the supernatural explanations seemed as likely as any others I came up with.
"These bugs must have the power of invisibility!"
"Maybe they aren't invisible bugs; maybe they are ghosts."
I remembered a mischievous supernatural creature that was a boggart, but it took me a while to remember the word.

Fittingly, it turns out that boggart and bug even share the same etymology!

Comments

[mellowtigger]

Interesting. So bug is an amelioration, changing from "inducing fear" to "inducing annoyance". I think English doesn't have many examples. It's fun to find another one.

[darkoshi]

That's interesting. And bugs can be either frightening or just annoying, depending on circumstance.

I also didn't realize that "bugs" as in "Bugs Bunny" meant "crazy"...
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-hardened-gangsters-got-the-cute-name-bugsy
“bugsy” came from comparisons to someone who’d been driven insane by bugs. To call someone “bugs,” or refer to a person as “bugsy” was to call them crazy, or unstable.

[nozomi604]

That reminds me of when I stumbled upon Boggle Hole.

[darkoshi]

That usage is new to me too. Britain has such nicely quaint place names.

The more common verb "boggle" comes from the same root too, which I wouldn't have guessed:
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=boggle