What does "Ancu ti curra su buginu" mean? The answers: from the cruel Piedmontese to the Catalan executioner
A Sardinian saying of ill omen, but what are its origins? One theory is the most accepted, but there are others
Do you know what "Ancu curra su Buginu" means? The curse has historical roots, but there are numerous theories on the derivation of the term "Buginu".
"Ancu you curra su Buginu" or "Ancu ti pighiri su Buginu" mean respectively "that the Buginu persecutes you" and "that the Buginu catches you".
But who is on Buginu? If Mommotti is a fictional figure to frighten children, "su Buginu" is real.
Between 1759 and 1773 Sardinia had to deal with a Piedmontese minister who worked on the island: Giovanni Battista Lorenzo Bogino, known for his cruelty. He had implemented some reforms that the Sardinians did not like, such as the installation of gallows and gallows in all the towns of Sardinia. It is therefore thought that “Su Buginu” could have been Minister Bogino, an executioner.
However, there is also a Latin term, “bucinum” which refers to “su Buginu” and appears to be the trumpet, the horn that was played to accompany those condemned to the gallows.
A further hypothesis is noted in the terms “bochìn”, or “botxì” in Catalan which means precisely: “Executioner, executor”.
So what are the origins of the "frastimo" (as we would call this expletive in Italianized Sardinian) and the term? We do not know but what is certain is that it is better not to be caught by the "Buginu", by the executioner.
This is Gianni Zanata's Sardinian column that will keep us company every Wednesday with anecdotes, curiosities, origins of Sardinian expressions.
(Unioneonline)
