[Ads-l] Things That Go Bump in the Night

[Jonathan Lighter]

1905 Archibald Stodart Walker   _A Beggar's Wallet : Containing
contributions in prose, verse and pictorial illustration, gathered from
certain workers in art and letters ... To be disposed of in aid of the
Royal Victoria Hospital for Consumpton, Edinburgh, at the Great
International Fair to be held in the Waverly Market, in the month of
November, 1905_  [Edinburgh: Dobson, Molle, 1905] 163:

"Frae ghosties and ghoulies, long-leggettie beasties,

 And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord deliver us."

— From a quaint old Litany.

JL

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 5:04 PM Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

> "Things that go bump in the night" refers to frightening unspecified but
> generally supernatural creatures.  The phrase (and variants on it) has been
> used in a number of titles, some of which are listed on a disambiguation
> page on Wikipedia,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_That_Go_Bump_in_the_Night.
> According to The Phrase Finder, the earliest known use of the phrase is
> from 1918, and it was incorporated in a prayer which was recorded in The
> Cornish and West Country Litany in 1926,
> https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/378900.html.  The OED also gives the
> 1918 date and suggests it probably has its origins in the 1926 "rhyme."  It
> does not appear to be in the Yale Book of Quotations.
>
> Here is an example of the prayer with the phrase from a review of the play
> Peter Pan in 1909.  This is from the Los Angeles Herald (Mar. 1, 1909)
> (Newspapers.com):
>
> <<"From ghoulies and ghosties, long-leggety beasties and things that go
> bump in the night - good Lord deliver us!" runs a quaint old litany,
> echoing the beliefs of another day, when sprites and nymphs and elves were
> about us and
>                Magic casements opened on the foam
>                Of Perilous seas in faery lands forelorn.
> The "ghoulies and ghosties" have gone, God give them speed, but "Peter
> Pan" is back with Tinker Bell and the beasties, and yesterday Los Angeles
> slipped out through the casement with Peter to the "Never, Never, Never
> land," in Barrie's whimsical and delightful play.>>
>
> It seems likely that both the prayer and the phrase are older than this
> and do not come from Los Angeles originally.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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