different between puck vs hobgoblin

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?k, IPA^(key): /p?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English puke, from Old English p?ca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-Germanic *p?kô (“a goblin, spook”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)p?ug(')- (“brilliance, spectre”). Cognate with Old Norse púki (“devil”) (dialectal Swedish puke), Middle Low German sp?k, sp?k (“apparition, ghost”), German Spuk (“a haunting”). More at spook.

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (now rare) A mischievous or hostile spirit. [from 10th c.]
   • 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press 2018, p. 232:

     William Tyndale allotted this character a role, of leading nocturnal travellers astray as the puck had been said to do since Anglo-Saxon times and the goblin since the later medieval period.

Synonyms

• See goblin (hostile) and fairy (mischievous)

Derived terms

• puckish

Etymology 2

From or influenced by Irish poc (“stroke in hurling, bag”). Compare poke (1861).

Verb

puck (third-person singular simple present pucks, present participle pucking, simple past and past participle pucked)

1. (chiefly Ireland) To hit, strike. [from 19th c.]

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (ice hockey) A hard rubber disc; any other flat disc meant to be hit across a flat surface in a game. [from 19th c.]
   • 1886, Boston Daily Globe (28 February), p 2:

     In hockey a flat piece of rubber, say four inches long by three wide and about an inch thick, called a ‘puck’, is used.

2. (chiefly Canada) An object shaped like a puck. [from 20th c.]
   • 2004, Art Directors Annual, v 83, Rotovision, p 142:

     He reaches into the urinal and picks up the puck. He then walk over to the sink and replaces a bar of soap with the urinal puck.

3. (computing) A pointing device with a crosshair. [from 20th c.]
4. (hurling, camogie) A penalty shot.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Danish: puck
• ? German: Puck
• ? Swedish: puck

Translations

See also

• Hockey puck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

From the Irish poc (“male adult goat, billy goat”).

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (Ireland, rural) billy goat

Etymology 4

Blend of pike +? tuck

Noun

puck (plural pucks)

1. (trampoline, gymnastics) A body position between the pike and tuck positions, with knees slightly bent and folded in; open tuck.

Swedish

Etymology

From English puck.

Noun

puck c

1. puck

Declension

Further reading

• puck in Svensk ordbok.

English

Etymology

From hob (“elf”) (from Hob, a variant of Rob, short for Robin Goodfellow, an elf in German folklore) + goblin.

Noun

hobgoblin (plural hobgoblins)

1. A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans. [from 1520s]
   • 1837, Albany Fonblanque, England Under Seven Administrations, Volume 1, page 98,

     A M. Berbiguier lately published an elaborate work, in three huge volumes, in which he demonstrated the existence of hobgoblins, described the proper manner of capturing and securing them, and took credit to himself for his zeal for the benefit of mankind, in allowing no day to pass without imprisoning, with his own hands, at least thirty hobgoblins. A writer of biographical notices of contemporary authors, who believed neither in M. Berbiguier's manner of catching hobgoblins nor in the existence of hobgoblins did not scruple to say that M. Berbiguier was mad, and upon this M. Berbiguier brought his action for libel; but unluckily, together with his action, he brought himself into Court, and established in a very few words the truth of the libel.

   • 2005, Scott Harper, Winter's Rite, page 142,

     The eyes blinked out and he heard a faint grunt, followed by the sounds of the Hobgoblin scrambling further back into the tunnel, away from the faint sunlight and the Ur'hunglav's domain.

   • 2007, Introduction: Phonoplay: Recasting Film Music, Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, Richard D. Leppert (editors), Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, page 1,

     The monster goes unrecognized because he looks like a harmless, pudgy nobody rather than like a hobgoblin. But he reveals his hobgoblin nature through music.

2. (by extension) A source of dread, fear or apprehension; a bugbear.
   • 2004, James Mulvihill, Upstart Talents: Rhetoric and the Career of Reason in English Romantic Disccourse 1790-1820, page 55,

     Under "Fallacies of Danger," then, is listed the subhead of "The Hobgoblin Argument, or, No Innovation, in which the hobgoblin in question is anarchy; which tremendous spectre has for its forerunner the monster innovation." A hot button like this would presumably elicit a visceral response even from Hamilton whose aversion to the hobgoblin of parliamentary reform was apparently his sole unreasoning reflex.

   • 2011, John Mueller, Mark G. Stewart, Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security, page 190,

     However, the public seems to have been able to retain much of its sense of alarm about internal attacks even when the al-Qaeda hobgoblin doesn't actually carry any out.

Synonyms

• (hostile supernatural creature): See goblin

Translations

Portuguese

Noun

hobgoblin m (plural hobgoblins)

1. hobgoblin (mischievous goblin)