["Bulldyke"] (1892)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Here's an item from N'archive:

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_Decatur [IL] Daily Review_, 29 July 1892: p. 7(?), col. 2:

<<WANTED TO KILL HER RIVAL. / Unable to Find Her, Hattie Washington Shoots
Three Other Women. / CHICAGO, July 28. -- With an idea of killing off a
greater portion of the women of the levee district Hattie Washington, a
colored woman, started out at 3:30 o'clock Wednesday afternoon with a big
revolver in her hand. She went to Blanche Alexander's place, at 101 Custom
House place, in search of Belle Watkins, who, she said, had won the
affections of Harvey Neal, alias "Bulldyke." Bell [sic] heard of her coming
and escaped, but as soon as the woman got inside of the house she began
firing right and left. ....>>

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What is the sense (if any) of the word "bulldyke"/"Bulldyke" used here as
Harvey Neal's nickname or alias?

Is it related to the similarly opaque "bulldyke[r]"/"bulldike[r]" recorded
from 1906 [by Fred Shapiro] meaning "lesbian"? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, if anyone can conclusively explain Mr. Neal's alias, perhaps this
will provide inspiration for etymologizing the later word applied to lesbians.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that Mr. Neal used an alias meaning "lesbian", "vulva",
or "hermaphrodite", or anything along those lines.

There seems no reason to suspect any connection with the ancient Queen
Boudicca, or with the 1887 Bodyke evictions in Ireland.

It's possible that Bulldyke is simply a rare surname or other proper noun,
but if so there's very little sign of it elsewhere in the1890's. It's also
possible that the transcription of the nickname is faulty.

The possibility of connection to "dyke" [verb] as in "dyked out/up" =
"dressed up" is not out of the question IMHO ... but I don't find any
comparable applications elsewhere, and (unlike the later lesbian-related
words) there is no reason for such a term to have been suppressed or arcane
in this application.

[Were there other similar aliases or nicknames in the epoch?] Yes, "Bull
Dog"/"Bulldog" was fairly common, apparently.

[But "dyke" is not "dog".] No, but "tyke" is (or was, at the time) "dog".
Is this relevant?

Anybody recognize "Bulldyke" as having any particular sense in 1892?

[By an odd coincidence, the above newspaper item appears immediately
adjacent to a separate item about the insanity hearing of Alice Mitchell of
Memphis, who murdered her (former?) lover Freda Ward with a cutthroat razor
in early 1892: a sensational crime of lesbian passion. Miss Mitchell
apparently had planned 'honorably' to marry and support Miss Ward, to dress
as a man and if necessary to grow a mustache (!) (hence the handy razor, I
suppose).]

-- Doug Wilson