shag-boy

English

Etymology

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

Noun

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

• shag-foal