Bodach is the Irish word for a tenant, a serf or peasant. It is derived from bod "tail, penis". The word has alternatively been derived from both "cottage, hut". The term botach "tenant farmer" is thus equivalent to a cotter ; a daer botach was a half-free peasant of a lower class. In either case, the name is formed by the addition of nominal suffix :wikt:-ach#Old Irish. In modern Gaelic, bodach simply means "old man", often used affectionately. In the Echtra Condla, one "Boadach the Eternal" is king ofMag Mell. This name is derived from buadhach "victorious" and unrelated to botach in origin. However, the two names may have become associated by the early modern period, as Manannan is also named king of Mag Mell, and the bodach figure in Eachtra Bhodaigh an Chóta Lachtna is in turn identified with Manannan. Bodach is the original Celtic name of the Badacsony wine region in Hungary. The name dates back to at least 1000BC but is likely much older. Over the centuries the name has evolved from Bodach to Badach to its modern name Badacsony.
In modern Gaelic folklore, the bodach or "old man" becomes a type of bugbear, to the point of being identified with the devil. In the early modern tale Eachtra Bhodaigh an Chóta Lachtna, the bodach is identified with the Manannán mac Lir. This identification inspired Lady Gregory's tale "Manannan at Play", where Manannan makes an appearance in disguise as "a clown... old striped clothes he had, and puddle water splashing in his shoes, and his sword sticking out naked behind him, and his ears through the old cloak that was over his head, and in his hand he had three spears of hollywood scorched and blackened." In Scottish folklore the bodach comes down the chimney to kidnap naughty children, used as a cautionary tale or bogeyman figure to frighten children into good behaviour. A related being known as the Bodach Glas is considered an omen of death. In Walter Scott's novel, Waverley, Fergus Mac-Ivor sees a Bodach Glas, which foretells his death. In W. B. Yeats's 1903 prose version of The Hour-Glass, the character of the Fool remarks at one point during the play that a bodach he met upon the roadside attempted to trick him with a riddle into letting the creature near his coin.
