"bulldyke" shortened from "bulldog-like"?

[Rick H Kennerly]

|o|
|o| One more implausible one to be found on the web:  "dyke" < Dike, the
|o| Greek storm goddess   Not to be confused with Nike, the Greek shoe
|o| goddess.

You're right, there.  Dike, actually most often Dice, was one of the three
Horae (hours or seasons) and was goddess of justice (the other two were
Eirene (peace) & Eunomia (order or legislation).  Among the more ancient of
the goddesses, the three represented the ordered cycles of seasons and,
therefore, the affairs of man & beast.

Not a major figure, Dice is only mentioned three or four times in all the
surviving ancient writings and is only vaguely associated with storms and
not at all with any sexuality.

Of course, looking for ties to the island of Lesbos and lesbians would be a
fool's errand.  While there are frequent mention of various modes of sexual
and sensual pleasures associated with the island of Lesbos, the purely
homosexual connotations are not supported by the ancient texts and are
mainly constructed from modern readings of the remaining scraps of poetry by
Sappho.

rhk