"Butch up"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 4 May 2005 01:37:00 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>On Tue, 3 May 2005 18:26:05 -0700, Arnold M. Zwicky
><zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>
>>but this one's been around a while in gay male circles.  "butch up"
>>your behavior, clothes, decor, etc., or just "butch it up": act
>>conventionally masculine (to conceal your homosexuality, to avoid
>>alienating people, whatever).  i'm away from my relevant sources, but
>>i'm pretty sure it goes back a few decades at least.  it's an
>>entirely natural development from the adjective "butch".
>
>The Broadway musical version of _La Cage aux Folles_ and the movie
>adaptation _The Birdcage_ probably introduced this sense of "butching
>(it) up" to many straight audiences.

And attentive theatergoers might have noticed it in a much earlier play:

-----
1968 M. CROWLEY _The Boys in the Band_ in _3 Plays_ (1996) 24 I butched it
up quite a bit. And I didn't think I was lying to myself. I really thought
I was straight.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1555833578/?v=search-inside&keywords=butched
-----


--Ben Zimmer