a question (Unconventional English)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 24 Oct 1999, Scott Swanson wrote:

> I have the 8th edition:
> Eric Partridge, "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English"
> Macmillan Publishing Company
> ISBN 0-02-594980-2
>
> For "Kike" he cites a Leo Rosten explanation as a derivation from Yiddish
> _kikel_, a circle - supposedly, illiterate Jewish immigrants to the US
> would sign their names with a circle, never with a cross...
>
> No etymology attempted for "Dyke".

Partridge is often inaccurate.  The more scholarly Random House Historical
Dictionary of American Slang gives as the etymology of _kike_ the
following: "orig. uncertain; perh. alter. of _Ike_, hypocoristic form of
male given name _Isaac_."

For _dyke_, the RHHDAS says "prob. f. _morphodike_, dial. var.
_hermaphrodite_."


Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2