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

[Baker, John]

Thanks, Jon and Garson, those are both nice examples.  I don’t know why Jon’s didn’t come up in my own search.

A question, if this is indeed of folk origin, is where it came from.  Garson’s example describes it as an “old Scotch prayer,” but its inclusion in the Cornish and West Country Litany implies an origin at the most distant extreme of Great Britain.  I’ve also seen an Irish origin claimed.  Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall are all noted for their dialects.  I don’t know which, if any, of these dialects includes “ghoulies,” “ghosties,” “long-leggety,” and “beasties.”


John Baker



From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
Sent: Wednesday 17 July 2019 1:00 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Things That Go Bump in the Night

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Thanks John. Excellent citation, JL. Here are some links to the 1905 book:

https://books.google.com/books?id=DygSAAAAYAAJ&q=leggettie#v=snippet&<https://books.google.com/books?id=DygSAAAAYAAJ&q=leggettie#v=snippet&>
https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/4<https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/4>
https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/n201<https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/n201>

The excerpt with "things that go bump in the night" appears as an
epigraph of a tale titled "Some Strange Visitations" by Hugh Warrand.

Here is citation from the next year that employs dialectical spelling,
e.g., "lang-legged" for "long-legged", "nicht for "night", and "gude"
for "good".

Date: July 7, 1906
Periodical: The Academy: The Weekly Review of Literature, Science & Art
Article: Review of the book "The Undertaker's Field" by Herbert Compton
Quote Page 16, Column 2
Published at The Offices of Country Life and George Newnes, London
(Google Books Full View)

https://books.google.com/books?id=5UY9AQAAMAAJ&q=%22gude+Lord%22#v=snippet&<https://books.google.com/books?id=5UY9AQAAMAAJ&q=%22gude+Lord%22#v=snippet&>

[Begin excerpt]
But "in romance all things are permissible," we are told. We lay down
the book with the old Scotch prayer upon our lips: "From ghouls and
ghosts and lang-legged beasties and things that go bump in the nicht,
gude Lord deliver us."
[End excerpt]

Garson O'Toole

Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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<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<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<http://www.americandialect.org>
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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