Major Antedating of "Bulldyker"

Fred Shapiro fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sat May 18 20:42:24 UTC 2002


The following are the earliest known uses of "dyke" and related terms, as
taken from the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang and
the OED:

dyke            1931

bulldyke        1931

bulldyking      1921

bulldyker       1925

I have now found a significantly earlier citation:

1906 J. Richardson Parke _Human Sexuality_ 309  In American homosexual
argot, female inverts, or lesbian lovers, are known euphemistically as
"bulldykers," whatever that may mean: at least that is their sobriquet in
the "Red Light" district of Philadelphia.


Fred Shapiro


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