Hugog And Whipple Phillips

In S T Joshi's HP Lovecraft: A Life, p. 3 he quotes a reference whereby it states "at last fell prey to that noted demon, Hugog, and lost much of his hard eranings..." and " ...rascality of a pretended friend, Hugog...". This apparently was a person or concern that swindled through some pretense - a confidence man of soprts - that swept through Whipple Pjillips' part of Rhode Island in the latter mid-19th century.

Chrispy does not think this is the name of a person, but a nickname. In Welsh-English, a hugog was a term for a cloak wrapped about. It does not take much more than that a bit of imagination to presume that hugog became "Hugog" a confidence man. The 'hug/-" prefix appears to indicate to 'loosely wrap' (ensnare? to trip up?).

Note 'hugwd" is a ghost or phantom.



From: Geiriadur cenhedlaethol Cymraeg a Saesneg, ed. and enlarged by R.J. Pryse edited by Robert John Pryse