Editing Puck (folklore) (section)

===Etymology===
The [[etymology]] of ''puck'' was uncertain.<ref>See for example Katharine Mary Briggs, ''Anatomy of Puck''. New York: Arno, 1977c1959. {{ISBN|0405100825}} {{OCLC|2876094}}</ref> The modern English word is attested already in [[Old English]] as {{lang|ang|puca}} (with a diminutive form {{lang|ang|pucel}}). Similar words are attested later in [[Old Norse]] ({{lang|non|púki}}, with related forms including [[Old Swedish]] {{lang|gmq|puke}}, [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] {{lang|is|púki}}, and [[Frisian languages|Frisian]] {{lang|fy|puk}}) but also in the [[Celtic languages]] ([[Welsh language|Welsh]] {{lang|cy|pwca}}, [[Cornish language|Cornish]] {{lang|kw|[[Bucca (mythological creature)|bucca]]}} and [[Irish language|Irish]] {{lang|ga|[[púca]]}}). Most commentators think that the word was borrowed from one of these neighbouring north-west European languages into the others, but it is not certain in what direction the borrowing went, and all vectors have been proposed by scholars. The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' favoured a Scandinavian origin, while the scholarly study by Erin Sebo of [[Flinders University]] argues for an Irish origin, on the basis that the word is widely distributed in Irish place-names, whereas ''puck''-place-names in English are rare and late in the areas showing Old Norse influence, and seem rather to radiate outwards from [[South West England]], which she argues had Irish influence during the [[Early Middle Ages]].<ref name="Sebo">{{cite journal |last=Sebo |first=Erin |year=2017 |title=Does OE ''Puca'' Have an Irish Origin? |journal=Studia Neophilologica |volume=87 |issue=2 |pages=167–175 |doi=10.1080/00393274.2017.1314773 |s2cid=164700561 }}</ref>