Dyke (slang)

The term dyke or dike is a slang noun meaning lesbian; it is also a slang adjective describing things associated with lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine, tomboyish, or butch woman; while this usage still exists, the term dyke has been reappropriated to an extent as a word implying assertiveness and toughness, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian.

The origin of the term is obscure, and many theories have been proposed. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the first attestation as Berrey and Van den Bark's 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang. There, "dike" was the more common term. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, "dike" had been American slang for a well-dressed man, with "diked out" and "out on a dike" indicating a young man was in his best clothes and ready for a night on the town. The etymology of that term is also obscure, but may have originated as a Virginian variant of "deck" and "decked out".

However, the term "bulldyker" preceded "dyke" in print, appearing in Harlem Renaissance novels in the 1920s.Claude McKay's 1928 Home to Harlem includes the passage that lesbians are "what we calls bulldyker in Harlem... I don't understan'... a bulldyking woman." From the context in the novel, the word was considered crude and pejorative at the time. This may be related to the late-19th-century slang use of "dike" ("ditch") for the vulva. "Bull" ("male cattle") being used in the sense of "masculine" and "aggressive" (e.g., in bullish), a "bulldyke" would have implied (with similar levels of offensiveness) a "masculine cunt". Other theories include that "bulldyker" derived from "morphadike", a dialect variant of "hermaphrodite", used for homosexuals in the early 20th century; that it was a term for stud bulls and originally applied to sexually successful men; or that it was a dialectical corruption of the rebel Celtic queen Boadicea.

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