Euphemism for the Devil

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Tess Cootie Anders, and I’m calling from San Antonio, Texas.

Welcome, Tess.

Hi, Tess.

What can we do for you?

What’s up?

I grew up with my dad and my grandfather playing this game with us, kind of a, I don’t know, kind of a boogeyman game where they would chase us around and say, Old Sanny Mocus is coming to get you. And I guess like most kids, I assumed all granddads and dads played the Fannie Mocas game and sort of forgot about it as I grew older. And after our father passed away, my sister and I were, you know, reminiscing and talking about it. And it occurred to us that probably no one else knew what a Fannie Mocas was. And when we asked, no one did. And all these years later, we’ve really wanted to know, was it something unique to our family or was it something regional from where my parents grew up? And just what was the etymology of a santi mocus? What is it?

All right.

Spell that for us.

Spell that for us, will you?

So, you know, here’s my best guess. Santi mocus as in S-A-N-T-Y. And we’ve imagined mocus to be either m-o-c-u-s or m-o-k-u-s. At least that’s how it seemed to be enunciated as, you know, we were being chased.

Sure, yeah.

There’s a clue in what you said a few minutes ago, a minute ago, about the boogeyman, and I think this is the answer. Martha, don’t you think?

I think this is one of the many names for the devil. There are in English probably more than a thousand names for the devil because it’s less important now, but it used to be important that you never named the devil. Did you always come up with an indirect reference when you needed to mention the devil? Mentioning him brings him, makes him present and involves him in your life. And there are similar sounding terms that aren’t quite the same, but I could see how a corruption would get you to Santimocus. One of them is Tantibogus. Another one is Tantribobus or Tantrumbobus. Something like that. And these are listed in some of the older dictionaries and some of the reference works that kind of specialize in gathering up language from old tales and old stories. I don’t know for sure that that’s the origin of old Santimokas, but boy, it sure sounds like another name for the devil.

I think that that makes sense. I mean, both, so my grandfather was a pastor, his father was a pastor. So the idea of, you know, the devil being an important character in our lives would definitely be, definitely resonate.

Yeah.

Any other description of this character?

Only by their actions, maybe. So, you know, whenever either of them played this game with us, they sort of always raised their hands above their heads and, you know, raised their shoulders in sort of a menacing fashion. And sort of lurched about. And it was just a, you know, I think the implication was that it was a creature.

Yeah.

And you would run squealing through the house, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this says a lot about our family, possibly. I don’t know. But it was a lot of fun. And that resonates. I feel like that that could be it.

Well, you know, if anybody else grew up with old Santa Mocas, we’re going to hear about it.

I hope so.

I hope you do. And I really, really appreciate the insight. Thank you so much for your call.

Absolutely.

You all have a great day.

You too.

Take care.

Thanks, Tess.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you ever heard of Old Sandy Mocas, we’d love to hear about it from you. So give us a call, 877-929-9673, or tell us about the other boogeyman in your life. Send those emails to words@waywordradio.org.