quarta-feira, maio 21, 2008
Puckish
Impish, whimsical
'Puck is “that merry wanderer of the night,” the shape-changing, maiden-frightening, mischief-sowing henchman to the king of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream [...]
The traditional Puck was more malicious than the Shakespearean imp; he was an evil spirit or demon. In medieval England, this nasty hobgoblin was known as the “puke” or “pouke,” names related to the Old Norse “pūki,” meaning “devil.”
But it was the Bard's characterization that stuck, and by the time the adjective "puckish" started appearing regularly in English texts in the late 1800s the association was one of impishness, not evil'.
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'Puck is “that merry wanderer of the night,” the shape-changing, maiden-frightening, mischief-sowing henchman to the king of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream [...]
The traditional Puck was more malicious than the Shakespearean imp; he was an evil spirit or demon. In medieval England, this nasty hobgoblin was known as the “puke” or “pouke,” names related to the Old Norse “pūki,” meaning “devil.”
But it was the Bard's characterization that stuck, and by the time the adjective "puckish" started appearing regularly in English texts in the late 1800s the association was one of impishness, not evil'.
