boo daddy

English

Alternative forms

Noun

boo daddy (plural boo daddies)

  1. (Gullah folklore) A malevolent supernatural being; a bogeyman.
    Coordinate term: boo hag
    • 1906, John Bennett, The Treasure of Peyre Gaillard‎[1], →ISBN, page 287:
      Dat swamp des’ splodin’ full o’ ghos’ an’ spook, boo-daddy an’ debblement!
    • 1938, The Ocean Highway: New Brunswick, New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida‎[2], page 204:
      HAMILTON’S HILL, 0.4 m., a little elevation, was the starting point for the races, and is known for a wide variety of ghosts including such fearsome creatures as a 10-foot cat that explodes before the beholder’s eyes, plat-eyes in the guise of three-legged hogs and two-headed cows, boo-daddies, boo-hags, and drolls.
    • 1941, South Carolina Folk Tales: Stories of Animals and Supernatural Beings, page 48:
      Boo-daddies are the spirits of doctor-niggers and conjure-men released from the body of the living at night for dread purposes. […] Boo-daddies are supposed to be the disembodied spirit of conjure-man or doctor-nigger. Unlike the boo-hag, these creatures are harmless.
    • 2000, Armistead Maupin, The Night Listener‎[3], →ISBN, page 322:
      When Josie and I were children at midcentury, I would terrorize her with tales of the Boo Daddy, a variation on the boogeyman I’d lifted from Gullah folklore. The Boo Daddy, it was said, would creep into your house late at night if your shutters weren’t painted a certain prophylactic shade of blue.

Further reading

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