Comprehensive information and links about Boogeyman

Boogeyman , is a legendary ghost-like monster that children often believe is real.

The bogeyman has no specific appearance. He is sometimes equated with specific real-life persons, such as serial killer Albert Fish.

Sometimes parents will, as a way of controlling their children, encourage belief in a bogeyman that only preys on children who misbehave. Such bogeymen may be said to target a specific transgression — for instance, a bogeyman that persecutes children who suck their thumbs — or just general misbehaviour. Similar educational tactics apply to traditional characters such as Zwarte Piet (an assistant of Saint Nick who whips bad kids).

It is said that the Bogeyman takes the shape and form of a child's worst fear in order to feed on them. The Bogeyman is sometimes said to be neither woman nor man, and is in the form of a shadowy figure when it is not so readily to scare a more difficult child.

The term "" is also used metaphorically to mean a person or thing of which someone else has an irrational fear.

Popular portrayals of Bogeymen include Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta . The latter relies on the British children's slang word bogey meaning snot or boogers, a substance these particular bogeymen are particularly fond of.

The etymology of the word "bogeyman" is uncertain, as is when it first appeared in the English language. Some sources date it to the 16th century, while others to around 1836, as a term for the Devil.

The roots of the word might ultimately derive from the Middle English , meaning "ghost", dating to around 1505 and popularised in English literature around the 19th century through the works of Scottish poets like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.

Other origins claimed for the term include it being a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was nicknamed "Boney" by the British. It may also have been derived from the Bugis people of Indonesia, feared pirates who preyed on shipping in the Straits of Malacca. According to this latter theory, European sailors who encountered them took their tales back to the Old World, telling stories of the "bugismen" to scare their children into behaving.

Brazil - A similar creature with the same function (scare misbehaved children) exists as the "Bag Man" (Portuguese: ""). It is portrayed as an adult male, usually in the form of a bum, or a hobo, who carries a sack on his back (much like Santa Claus would), and collects children who are mean or misbehave to sell them. Parents may tell their kids that they will call the "Sack man" to collect them if they do not behave." ("the black man"), portrayed as a tall man wearing a heavy black coat, with a black hood or hat which hides his face. Sometimes, parents will knock loudly under the table, pretending that someone is knocking at the door, and saying: "Here comes is not supposed to eat or harm children, just take them away to a mysterious and frightening place. A popular lullaby says that he would keep a child with him "for a whole month". As the color black is associated with fascism in Italy, in adult language , a shapeless figure, sometimes a hairy monster, that eats children that misbehave when they are told to go to bed. Parents will sing lullabies or tell rhymes to the children warning them that if they don't sleep, will come and get them. The rhyme originated in the 17th century has evolved over the years, but still retaining its original meaning. (man-with-a-sack) will come and kidnap them with his large sack if they misbehave. In some villages people used to believe that a hairy, dark, ghost-like creature called a (Tal-ah-SUHM) lived in the shadows of the barn or in the attic and came out at night to scare little children. (bogeyman who eats everything up). The threat is generally used to make small children eat their meals.Napoleon.org - fun stuff (describing the origins of the term 'bogeyman' - an English reference to the infamous diminuitive Corsican conqueror)