Dictionary

plat-eye en · NOUN

Etymology

From plat, a term of unknown origin, plus eye. Attested from the 19th century. Originally African-American, especially South Carolina.

Meanings

1. A mythical monster or ghost in the folklore of the West Indies and southern United States; it is a being with large, glowing eyes, capable of shapeshifting and sometimes depicted as a phantom bound to a particular place, such as a cave or grove, as a guardian (for buried treasure, etc).
   • De ole folks is talk bout Plat-eye. Dey say dey takes shape ob all kind de critter 1985, Charles Joyner, quoting Maum Addie, interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler c. 1938, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, page 152:

Forms