Gogol (nursery bugaboo)
Gogol / Gogoli
Elsie Gogol: nursery bugaboo; Arbëresh father/son
Description
Nursery bugaboo used to frighten children into being good and not crying. Elsie 2001 s.v. Gogol: Alb. gogol, def. gogoli ‘bugaboo, bogey’; Sicilian Arbëresh keep gogol i madh (big/father gogol) and a gogol son. Lexical aliases Bubë / Bubazhel / Vovë. Elsie Buba (snake-like heat-time child-scare, Shkodra) sits in the same nursery-scare field. He is not the podgy folk-tale giant Gog of the vorra gogs tumuli.
Features
- frighten children into being good / not crying (Elsie)
- Arbëresh father/son gogol pair (Elsie/Lambertz)
Lead story
When a child will not stop crying, the house names a bugaboo — Gogol. Among Sicilian Arbëresh there is even a father gogol and a son. Bubë and Bubazhel answer the same call. Gog of the tumuli is a different, clumsy giant walk; this is the nursery scare.
Aliases
Gogol · Gogoli · Bubë · Bubazhel · Vovë · Buba (Elsie snake-form child-scare — soft cluster)
Region
Pan-domestic nursery; Sicilian Arbëresh father/son gogol (Elsie/Lambertz)
Relations
- Gog (podgy clumsy giant)not the tumulus giant
Linked stories
Elsie keeps two headwords: Gogol the child-scare bugaboo (Arbëresh father/son) and Gog the podgy clumsy giant with vorra gogs — keep the two distinct.