shag-boy

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English

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Etymology

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From hogboy, from Old Norse haugr (cairn; mound) +‎ bui (dweller; tennant). Cognate with Scots hogboon and Old Norse haugbúi.

Noun

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shag-boy (plural shag-boys)

  1. (Lincolnshire) A ghost or goblin.
    • 1882 August, “From the Heart of the Wolds”, in The Cornhill Magazine[1], volume 46, number 2, page 232:
      Ghosts, bogies, and the supernatural generally have utterly vanished from this commonplace district before schools and newspapers. Even an old lady more than ninety years old said to us, "Fairies and shag-boys! lasses are often skeart at them, but I never saw none, though I have passed many a time after dark a most terrible spot for them on the road at Thorpe."

Synonyms

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