In no place in the text is he addressed as "Puck"; it is
always "Robin"[34] (once[35] "Goodfellow" is added). In the last lines of
the play he twice refers to himself as "_an_ honest Puck" and "_the_
Puck," [36] showing that the word is originally a substantive. Dr. J.A.H.
Murray has very kindly allowed the slips of the _New English Dictionary_
which contain notes for the article 'Puck' to be inspected; his treatment
of the word will be awaited with much interest. The earliest and most
important reference is to Prof. A.S. Napier's _Old English Glosses_ (1900),
191, where in a list of glosses of the eleventh century to Aldhelm's
_Aenigmata_ occurs "larbula [i. e. larvula], _puca_." Prof. Napier notes
that O.E. puca, "a goblin," whence N.E. _Puck_, is a well authenticated
word. Dr. Bradley suggests that the source might be a British word, from
which the Irish _puca_ would be borrowed; this word _pooka_, as well as the
allied _poker_, has already been treated in the _N.E.D._ _Puck_, _pouke_,
we find in O.E. (Old English Miscellany, _E.E.T.S._, 76), in Piers Plowman,
and surviving in Spenser; but there are countless analogous forms:
_puckle_, _pixy_, _pisgy_, in English, and perhaps (through Welsh) _bug_,
the old word for _bugbear_, _bogy_, _bogle_, etc.; _puki_ in Icelandic;
_pickel_ in German; and many more.
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