[< bog n.1 + people n. In sense 2 after Danish mosefolket (1965, in source translated in quot. 1969 at sense 2).]
With pl. concord.
1. Collectively: the inhabitants of a boggy area. rare.
1878 Times 29 Jan. 4/6 The old troglodytes, pile-villagers, and bog-people prove to be quite a respectable society. 1988 Toronto Star (Nexis) 29 Nov. W10 Chevrier and other bog people...are appealing to citizens to join a city-wide movement to convince Mississauga city council that the picturesque wetland is a chunk of local natural history that is worthy of preservation.
2. Collectively: the bodies, typically belonging to pre-Christian Germanic cultures, found in a well-preserved state in peatbogs in northern Europe. Cf. bogman n. 2.
1969 R. Bruce-Mitford tr. P. V. Glob (title) The bog people: Iron-Age man preserved. 1988 Paleobiol. 14 334 The so-called ‘bog people’ from the peats of northern Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, and Ireland...have been mistaken for recent murder victims. 1996 A. Michaels Fugitive Pieces ii. 221, I had discovered the perfectly preserved bog people in National Geographic, and derived a fascinated comfort from their preservation.
Copyright © Oxford University Press 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment