In defense of etymological speculation

[Paul McFedries]

If people must indulge themselves in etymological speculation (and it
appears they must), I don't understand why they make things needlessly
complex. For example, (and pardon me if I've missed something here;
I've been deleting the "bulldyke = bulldog-like" thread), if a "bull"
is a large, mature male of certain animal species, and also therefore
means "a large or agressive man," then it's not at all surprising that
a person with a strongly mannish appearance or demeanor (a bull) who
is also a lesbian (a dyke) should be called a "bulldyke." (The RHHDAS
appears to back me up here by showing the etymology as "[_bull_ +
DYKE]".)

Of course, this too is speculative etymology, and I await the
historical evidence for the bull+dyke connection.

Paul