- We've got just over a week left before it's Halloween!
Do you say ghoul or spirit for Halloween? Or do you use words like skookum or go-devil?
Hide-Behind
A hide-behind can be also said as a high-behind or a nigh-behind, meaning a ghost or imaginary creatures that always hides behind some object. The 1939 book Critter by Henry Tryon describes a hide-behind as a 6-foot-tall “highly dangerous animal” with “grizzly-like claws.” It’s known that it’s “never known to attack an inebriate.” Another novel, We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks, by Vance Randolph from 1951 says the monster is a Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks, the monster is “a lizard as big as a bull” that “lies in wait for human beings on the trails at night.”
Swogon
This term comes from Maine and it might come from Swamp Swogon, like in Holman Day’s Up in Maine: “For even in these days P.I.’s shake / At the great Swamp Swogon of Brassua Lake./ When it blitters and glabbers the long night through,/ And shrieks for the souls of the shivering crew.” Also a Maine word, swogun, means ghost and is spelled swagin, swagan, and more) actually means bean soup. Will you use swogon for Halloween?
Skookum
This Northwest term means ghost, demon, or spirit and comes from the Chinook Native American peoples of the Pacific Northwest. In the Northwest and Alaska, skookum is an adjective meaning strong, powerful and good, meanwhile skookum house is a jail and skookum chuck is a turbulent channel of water.
Hot Hant and Hot Steam
In the Lower Mississippi Valley and southern Alabama, you may see a hot hant or a hot steam. The book Blow for a Landing talks about hot hants being hot because “they’ve gone to hell.” A hot steam is described in To Kill a Mockingbird as “somebody who can’t get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an’ if you walk through him, when you die you’ll be one too.” What do you think of using hot hant and hot steam for Halloween?
Plat-eye
Plat-eye’s are known to roam around South Carolina at night. These malevolent spirits or hobgoblins are said to rise out of their graves. The saying platt-eye prowl comes from the idea that they roam around at night.
Catawampus
This is a word for an imaginary monster or hobgoblin in the South and South Midland states and also means fierce, unsparing or destructive. It was first a humorous formation thought to have been influenced by catamount, puma or cougar.
Go-Devil
This expression also comes from South Carolina, a go-devil is an evil spirit or someone that is all made up to look like one. Go-Devil can also reference various machines and agricultural, forestry, the oil industry and logging devices. Sounds like this is used for a lot more than for Halloween.
Stepney
Gullah speakers use this expression and are located on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts. No one is really sure where the word comes from but it is known that it could mean hunger, hard times or even be personified as a malevolent spirit.
Think you’ll use any of these words for Halloween this year? Let me know in the comments!