["Bulldyke"] (1892)

[Baker, John]

        My father, who owned a small farm in Adair County, Kentucky, used to name his bulls "Bullduck."  He considered it a traditional name for a bull.  "Bullduck" was only a bull's name in my experience, but at least on occasion it seems also to have been applied to humans.  The Adair County News on 12/22/1897, online at http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/adair/news/1897d04.txt, had this passage:

        <<"Bullduck" MILLER is the Tom Sawyer of Columbia among the colored boys. We
contract with him weekly to turn the press. He never fails to bring less than
four boys with him. They watch him turn the big wheel and it looks so easy
they volunteer to help him and, when the edition is off, "Bullduck" has done
but little work and receives all the pay. When he walks out of the office the
boys follow him, wanting a piece, but the only response from "Bullduck" is,
"I am Shifty and I tell you that".>>

        "Bullduck" and "Bulldyke" are close enough that I wonder if Bulldyke may also have started as a traditional bull's name.

John Baker