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

Thu Jul 18 16:35:17 UTC 2019

Here is an instance in 1911 with double-o in ghost:
Ghoulies and Ghoosties, Long-Leggety Beasties

[ref] 1911, The Magic Casement: An Anthology of Fairy Poetry, Edited
with an introduction by Alfred Noyes, (Epigraph), Quote Page viii,
Chapman & Hall Ltd, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link [/ref]

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015012257237
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015012257237?urlappend=%3Bseq=14

[Begin excerpt]
"FROM GHOULIES AND GHOOSTIES, LONG-LEGGETY BEASTIES, AND THINGS THAT
GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT,
GOOD LORD, DELIVER US!"
Quaint Old Litany
[End excerpt]

Warning: Google Books and HathiTrust both show a defective match that
supposedly is located within "The Story of Mary Mecome" by Zephine
Humphrey which is dated to 1906. When I examined the match in
HathiTrust I found that two books were pasted together. The matching
text was actually in the 1947 book "A Little Night Music" by Barbara
Hunt

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b56766
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b56766?urlappend=%3Bseq=59
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b56766?urlappend=%3Bseq=86

[Begin excerpt from "A Little Night Music"]
Even after he had grown up he sometimes woke with a start, having just
dropped off to sleep, with the guilty sense that he had murmured its
words unknowingly in that borderland between sleep and waking. "Oh
Lord, preserve me from the ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety
beasties, and all things that go bump in the nicht." Long after he had
learned to say "night" he still said "nicht" in the prayer. Even now,
when he thought of the prayer, he said "nicht."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 12:10 PM Michael Everson <everson at evertype.com> wrote:
>
> That’s certainly Scots. I can’t say anything about it’s status as an old prayer. Note that “beastie” means ‘insect’.
>
> Michael Everson
> http://evertype.com
>
> > On 18 Jul 2019, at 16:57, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > "Frae" is also Scots.
> >
> > If "ghosties" was originally "ghaisties," the rhythmic lines could include
> > a rhyme :
> >
> > "Frae ghoulies and ghaisties,
> > Lang-leggity beasties,
> > An' things that gae bump in the nicht,
> > Guid Lord deliver us."
> >
> > However, the Dictionary of the Scots Language has no entry for "ghoulie" or
> > "long/lang -leggity," and no exx. of "ghaistie" till 1979 !
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 10:14 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Scots is/was noted for its frequent use of diminutives like "ghoulies,"
> >> "ghosties," and "beasties." "Lang" is also a Scots form.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >>> On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 10:07 AM Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> 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
> >>>
> >>> External Email - Think Before You Click
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> 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
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>> 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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> >>> http://www.americandialect.org>
> >>>
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> >>> http://www.americandialect.org>
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
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>
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