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

[Shapiro, Fred]

This does appear in the Yale Book of Quotations.


Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Baker, John <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 5:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Things That Go Bump in the Night

"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://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThings_That_Go_Bump_in_the_Night&data=02%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40yale.edu%7C71ca090c0479470aac8c08d70a3135b3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C636989078780111908&sdata=IFbwI2fnnUYYOxSVZEqCjuA3nCVG8i0b1Z5x%2BhT%2B3nI%3D&reserved=0.  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://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phrases.org.uk%2Fmeanings%2F378900.html&data=02%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40yale.edu%7C71ca090c0479470aac8c08d70a3135b3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C636989078780111908&sdata=xHTJt9yN%2BW8kGIQCEzfrQGsNkzsgtVyACeU5Q4gC2Wo%3D&reserved=0.  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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