[Ads-l] Origins of "Bulldyke" and Related Terms

Thu Mar 28 18:52:24 UTC 2024

"Overly masculine person" seems to be a difficult fit for 1899 and 1903.
Maybe someone big, strong, and aggressive?  (Not so judgmental of degree.)

Cf. "bulldozer."  In thirty-odd years of arcane research I never
encountered a "dike/dike" = "dick " in any era.  "Bulldagger," I assume, is
a Southern/African-American variant of "bulldyker," with nothing
etymologically  to do with real or metaphorical daggers.

JL

On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 8:26 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> I would tentatively guess that the early and late uses are related, both
> "overly masculine," a type, with eventual modified sex and/or gender
> application.
> A bull's dyke (or dagger) could be dick, somewhat like arse for ass?
>
> sg
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2024 8:15 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Origins of "Bulldyke" and Related Terms
>
> Equally interesting is that by 1906 the word was known in Chicago,
> Stillwater, Shreveport, and Philadelphia, before radio and with virtually
> no appearances in print.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 7:26 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > To borrow a concept from statistics, I'd say it's probable that it has
> > some connection to Black slang, but my confidence in that probability
> isn't
> > high. There isn't a lot of evidence to go on. A few more citations may
> > eliminate that hypothesis. It's all very sketchy.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 8:31pm
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Origins of "Bulldyke" and Related Terms
> >
> >
> >
> > As I hope I have made clear over the years, I am not one to cling to a
> pet
> > theory when evidence is found contrary to the theory. Thanks, Dave, for
> > illuminating the question of Harvey Neal's sex. I had attempted to find
> > other articles about Harvey Neal, but didn't go far enough in time. Do
> you
> > still feel that, as you wrote in 2020, "bulldike" seems to have
> originated
> > in Black slang ?
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> > dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 6:56 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: Origins of "Bulldyke" and Related Terms
> >
> >
> > The Muscatine article is a reprint of a piece that appeared in Chicago's
> > Daily Inter-Ocean the previous day. It was reprinted in a number of other
> > papers as well.
> >
> > Harvey Neal shows up in two other Daily Inter-Ocean articles. One on 12
> > November 1892 when Hattie Washington stabbed him in the back with a small
> > knife (Good for her, I say; he sounds like a delightful fellow). As in
> the
> > earlier article, this one does not specify Neal's gender. But the second
> > article, 29 May 1896, reporting on Neal's being arrested for another
> > matter, clearly identifies him as a Black man. It is possible, I guess,
> > that Neal could have been a trans-man, but I doubt 1890s newspaper
> editors
> > were so enlightened as to take care not to misgender him.
> >
> > Unless "bulldyke" had some slang currency in the sense of an overly
> > masculine person, I think that Neal's nickname is unrelated to the later
> > use of "bulldyke."
> >
> >
> > “A Negress Runs Amuck.” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), 28 July 1892, 9.
> > NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
> >
> > “Brief Mention.” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), 12 November 1892, 7.
> > NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
> >
> > “Celestial and Negro Quarrel.” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), 26 May 1896,
> > 8. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
> >
> > [
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fwww.wordorigins.org*2Fbig-list-entries*2Fdyke&data=05*7C02*7Cfred.shapiro*40YALE.EDU*7Ceff808d23b8d40a7f7c508dc4eb1270d*7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c*7C0*7C0*7C638471769972372897*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&sdata=VNrPL*2FLzAwjOosZsavwB4WzJ9zSWDXKtBJGYzVB6f2A*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJQ!!OToaGQ!u3kG8cG18sPB4bg0CnJoGXYy3s64rPvBVq0lJ0BXvmMawmwiYAM7oMHz4ByGwKeeQWuKLfzLBGi1rcIu8iFoXw$
> > <
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/dyke__;!!OToaGQ!u3kG8cG18sPB4bg0CnJoGXYy3s64rPvBVq0lJ0BXvmMawmwiYAM7oMHz4ByGwKeeQWuKLfzLBGi1rcJw6TJtXA$
> > ](
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fwww.wordorigins.org*2Fbig-list-entries*2Fdyke&data=05*7C02*7Cfred.shapiro*40YALE.EDU*7Ceff808d23b8d40a7f7c508dc4eb1270d*7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c*7C0*7C0*7C638471769972381351*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&sdata=DGVdajaal7jgSWIqaF26CrhjB*2FqARA7Ym6zMWyYEzxc*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJQ!!OToaGQ!u3kG8cG18sPB4bg0CnJoGXYy3s64rPvBVq0lJ0BXvmMawmwiYAM7oMHz4ByGwKeeQWuKLfzLBGi1rcLHM_k4Qw$
> > <
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/dyke__;!!OToaGQ!u3kG8cG18sPB4bg0CnJoGXYy3s64rPvBVq0lJ0BXvmMawmwiYAM7oMHz4ByGwKeeQWuKLfzLBGi1rcJw6TJtXA$
> > )
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 2:43pm
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: [ADS-L] Origins of "Bulldyke" and Related Terms
> >
> >
> >
> > One of the most interesting word-mysteries involves the origins of the
> > word "bulldyke" and related terms such as "bulldyking," "bulldyker," and
> > "bulldagger." The Oxford English Dictionary's first use for "bulldyker"
> > (contributed to them by me) is from J. Richardson Parke's book Human
> > Sexuality (1906): "In American homosexual argot, female inverts, or
> lesbian
> > lovers, are known euphemistically as 'bulldykers,' whatever that may
> mean:
> > at least that is their sobriquet in the 'Red Light' district of
> > Philadelphia." Their chronologically next citation from this group of
> words
> > is "She stated that she had indulged in the practice of 'bull diking,' as
> > she termed it. She was a prisoner in one of the reformatories, and there
> a
> > certain young woman fell in love with her." (Medical Review of Reviews
> > [1921]) None of the OED citations shed any light on the meaning of the
> > "dyke" component of the word.
> >
> > A search for "bulldyke" on Newspapers.com pulls up a July 29, 1892
> article
> > in the Muscatine (Iowa) News-Tribune, beginning with the following
> > remarkable passage: "CHICAGO ... With an idea of killing off a greater
> > portion of the women in 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.'" Is this the same "bulldyke" term later
> > commonly used for "mannish" lesbians? Commentators writing about the 1892
> > article have suggested that Harvey Neal's name may disprove his having
> been
> > a "bulldyke" in the later meaning, but that it is more likely that Harvey
> > was a lesbian who had assumed a typically male name.
> >
> > There is a bizarre additional angle to the Harvey Neal question.
> > Immediately adjacent to the article in the Muscatine newspaper appears a
> > story about the murder of Freda Ward by Alice Mitchell. Alice Mitchell
> and
> > Freda Ward were lovers, and Ward's highly publicized murder was the
> > incident that first brought lesbianism into widespread public
> > consciousness. I imagine that the placement of the two items in the
> > newspaper was purely coincidental, but it almost seems like the Muscatine
> > News-Tribune had some kind of special focus on lesbianism.
> >
> > I should point out that the OED mentions the Hattie Washington incident
> > (citing to an identical report in the Chicago Inter Ocean, July 28) in an
> > etymological note. They ask the reader to "compare the following isolated
> > early use as a nickname for a person who is confirmed to be male in
> another
> > part of the story." However, there is no mention of Harvey Neal in any
> > other part of the story in either newspaper.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  1.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
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