All Things Linguistic

psychrophile:

grizzlyhills:
flightcub:
interretialia:
life-of-a-latin-student:
ratwithoutwings:
i’m so upset
I just realized that the reason ghosts say Boo! is because it’s a latin verb
they’re literally saying ‘I alarm/I am alarming/I do alarm!!
I can’t
present active boō, present infinitive boāre, perfect active boāvī, supine boātum
Recte!
if it comes from the latin word, they’re actually saying “I’M YELLING!” which is even cuter
do they speak latin because it’s a dead language

I looked this up on Etymonline just in case it was actually true, and I found this pretty delightful etymology:

Boo - expression meant to startle, early 15c., boh, “A combination of consonant and vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound” [OED, which compares Latin boare, Greek boaein “to cry aloud, roar, shout.”]; as an expression of disapproval, 1801 (n.), 1816 (v.); hence, the verb meaning “shower someone with boos” (1893).
Booing was common late 19c. among London theater audiences and at British political events; In Italy, Parma opera-goers were notorious boo-birds, but the custom seems to have been little-known in America till c. 1910.
To say boo “open one’s mouth, speak,” originally was to say boo to a goose.
To be able to say Bo! to a goose is to be not quite destitute of courage, to have an inkling of spirit, and was probably in the first instance used of children. A little boy who comes across some geese suddenly will find himself hissed at immediately, and a great demonstration of defiance made by them, but if he can pluck up heart to cry ‘bo!’ loudly and advance upon them, they will retire defeated. The word 'bo’ is clearly selected for the sake of the explosiveness of its first letter and the openness and loudness of its vowel. [Walter W. Skeat, “Cry Bo to a Goose, "Notes and Queries,” 4th series vi Sept. 10, 1870]

So if ghosts are anything like geese, perhaps this means that the correct thing to do is to say boo back to the ghost, to show you’re not afraid. (Or even that ghosts are really just plucking up their courage to face us.)

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