Word of the Week (October 22, 2007):
boo
Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English
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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