Episode 168: Witches, Demons and Fairies
The History of English Podcast
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The Origins of the Word Bug
Reginald Scott used the word bug to refer to an evil spirit. At the time bug was a common term for a scary or frightening spirit. It isn't entirely clear how the modern word bug came about but one theory is that it's ultimately the same word. The prevalence of all those terms for supernatural creatures gives us a sense of the fascination that people in Elizabethan England had for the spirit world.
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