[Irish, churl, clown; ScG, old or churlish person; cf. Old Irish botach, serf, peasant]
A form of the bugbear or bug-a-boo in Scottish Gaelic and Irish folklore which in recent years has served only to torment naughty children. Some children's stories use the terms ‘curmudgeon’ or the name ‘Nod’ as a translation. In earlier times the bodach was more formidable; the bodach glas [Scottish Gaelic, grey or pale churl] foretells death in Walter Scott's Waverley (1814). See also the BWCI of Wales; BUGGANE of the Isle of Man.
