dial. [Corn. bucca ‘hobgoblin, bugbear, scarecrow,’ app. cogn. with mod.Welsh bwgan specter.] a. A bogle; applied inter alia to the subterranean spirits supposed to frequent tin-mines (see Philos. Trans., vol. I.). b. A stupid person. The compounds bucca-boo (bugaboo), bucca-gwidden, are also in dial. use (see quots.).
1865. R. Hunt, Pop. Romances W. Eng., Ser. I. 67. The Buccas or knockers—These are the sprites of the mines, and correspond to the Kobals of the German mines.
1880. West Cornw. Gloss., 7. Newlyn buccas, strong as oak, Knocking ’em down at every poke. Bucca-boo, a ghost; a bug-bear; a black bucca. Bucca-gwidden, a precocious child; a simple innocent; an insane person.
