Bogeyman
The bogeyman (/ˈboʊɡimæn/; also spelled or known as bogyman,[1] bogy,[1] bogey,[1] and, in North American English, also boogeyman)[1] is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior.
Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine or androgynous monsters that punish children for misbehavior.
[5] The word has equivalents in many European languages as bogle (Scots), púca, pooka or pookha (Irish), pwca, bwga or bwgan (Welsh), bucca (Cornish), buse or busemann (Norwegian), puki (Old Norse), bøhmand or bussemand (Danish), bûzeman (Western Frisian), boeman (Dutch), boeboelaas (Surinamese Dutch), Butzemann (German), Böölimaa (Swiss German), Babay/Babayka, búka (Russian), bauk (Serbian), bubulis (Latvian), baubas (Lithuanian), bobo (babok, bebok) (Polish), buba/gogol (Albanian), bubák (Czech), bubák (Slovak), bebok (Silesian),[6] papão (Portuguese), bampoúlas (Greek), babau (also "uomo nero", meaning black man) (Italian), babáj (Ukrainian),[citation needed] baubau (Romanian), papu (Catalan), and mumus (Hungarian).
Similar legends are present in Eastern Europe (e.g. Bulgarian Torbalan, "sack man"), as well as in Haiti and some countries in Asia.
Latin America also has El Coco, although its folklore is different, commonly mixed with native beliefs and, because of cultural contacts, sometimes more closely related to the North American version of the Boogeyman.
Among Mexican-Americans, El Cucuy is portrayed as an evil monster that hides under children's beds at night and kidnaps or eats those who do not obey his/her parents by going to sleep when it is time to do so.
However, the Spanish American bogeyman does not resemble the shapeless or hairy monster of Spain: social sciences professor Manuel Medrano says popular legend describes el cucuy as a small humanoid with glowing red eyes that hides in closets or under the bed.
"Some lore has him as a kid who was the victim of violence... and now he's alive, but he's not," Medrano said, citing Xavier Garza's 2004 book Creepy Creatures and other Cucuys.
"[10] In Brazilian folklore, a similar character called Cuca is depicted as a female humanoid alligator, or an old lady with a sack.
[11] In the countries of central and Eastern Mediterranean, children who misbehave are threatened with a creature known as "babau" (or "baubau", "baobao", "bavbav", or بعبع "Bu'Bu'" or similar).
I will give him to the Boogeyman, who's going to keep him for a whole year") L'uomo nero is not supposed to eat or harm children, but instead takes them away to a mysterious and frightening place.
Other examples include the Buhmann (who is mostly proverbial) and der schwarze Mann ("The Black Man"),[14][verification needed] an inhuman creature which hides in the dark corners under the bed or in the closet and carries children away.
