Nearly didn't get the Bible one my first thought was Herod. As for the scythe carrying harbinger of death- all I could think of was Death and his horse Binky!!! :-)
It's both the generic and the feminine. There's a word for male goat which is "cabrón", though it is most often used as an insult meaning "bastard" than to refer to the actual animal ;)
One of the possibilities for the etymology for bogeyman is that it comes from bochelman or boggelmann where the first part means hump/bump/bend basicly translates as hunchback. You can see how the connection would be made. People scare their children with a deformed figure (not politically correct, but it happened(/s)
There are actually several familynames like that, bockelman, bogeyman, bogchelman
Another possible explanation is bockeman as in buck. Like half man, half goat, ring any bells?
The third option is boe(s)man buschemann. meaning bushman. I seriously remember being threatened with that when I was young, again not very politically correct. But with the same aspect something unknown and different than average. (When I was really young I thought that meant men hiding in little shrubs..)
So you cooould say, if it does not have a hump/is hunched, is not from the bush, or is not half goat, it is not a bogeyman ;)
That was my first answer but I quickly got the correct one on the second try. (I once walked into a room where my grandmother and mother were sitting and I assumed they had been talking about me because my grandmother said, "Speak of the devil and his imps will appear.")
Bats are the only mammals that can fly, but vampire bats have an even more interesting distinction—they are the only mammals that feed entirely on blood.
(...)
The common vampire bat is found in the tropics of Mexico, Central America, and South America.
Cookie monster is tooo cute! Used to be a big fan ( still sort of am ;) But I also for a period had quite the fear of putting my feet right next to the bed haha, or sticking out from under the covers.. always made a big step! I saw a scary scene when I was pretty young, guess it left it's impact. Though I believe it is a common fear. (Also had this weird thing when I had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, I flushed the toilet and ran up the stairs as quick as I could haha )
The Serpent and the Devil are the same being. And regardless, in its Serpent form it's not a bogeyman as it only appears in that one instance. Witches are not necessarily female.
Am I the only one here bothered by the fact that poor snakes are lumped in with a bunch of mythical monsters and bad guys? Poor snakes. They are just trying to live their lives and keep rodent populations down for us, next thing ya know, they are lumped in with Chupacabras.
(The word) demon was not referring to anything evil originally. It actually meant (guardian) spirit of deity. Ofcourse after christianity there could only be one god and other (lesser) deities were eventually presented in a bad daylight. At first demon still meant deity, not hellcreature but just heathen spirits/deities, but looked down upon/seen negatively. Later on it got, well demonized I guess and turned into evil beings.
Hope I explained it well enough in english. Hard to make descriptions in another language, especially in text. But if you didnt know this already, educate yourself and research it.
There are actually several familynames like that, bockelman, bogeyman, bogchelman
Another possible explanation is bockeman as in buck. Like half man, half goat, ring any bells?
The third option is boe(s)man buschemann. meaning bushman. I seriously remember being threatened with that when I was young, again not very politically correct. But with the same aspect something unknown and different than average. (When I was really young I thought that meant men hiding in little shrubs..)
So you cooould say, if it does not have a hump/is hunched, is not from the bush, or is not half goat, it is not a bogeyman ;)
(...)
The common vampire bat is found in the tropics of Mexico, Central America, and South America.
REF: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/common-vampire-bat/
Hope I explained it well enough in english. Hard to make descriptions in another language, especially in text. But if you didnt know this already, educate yourself and research it.