dyke

Meaning

Noun

• A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.

Related

Similar words

• ditch, trench, fosse
• puddle, pond, pool, lakelet, mere
• den, cave, hole, pit
• bank, embankment, earthwork
• bank, embankment, dam, levee, breakwater, floodwall, seawall

Origin

• A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike, from Old Norse díki ("ditch"). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc ("ditch; dam") and Middle Low German dīk ("dam"). See also
• ditch.
• Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 1930s.
• Semantic development from dyke has been proposed, and some sources from the 1890s are said to record dyke as slang for "vulva" and hedge of the dyke as slang for "pubic hair", but Green's Dictionary of Slang says dyke in the latter phrase had no reference to lesbianism and Dictionary.com considers a connection unlikely.
• bull dyke / bulldike is attested earlier, in reference to women since at least the 1920s (the 29 July 1892 Decatur Daily Review in Illinois mentions a woman who "won the affections of Harvey Neal, alias 'Bulldyke'", whose gender is unclear), and bulldyker (and the practice of bulldyking) are also attested earlier, e.g. in Parke's 1906 Human Sexuality, in the speech of Philadelphians, and backcountry American blacks.
• Other linguists suggested that bull dyke(r) referred to strong black women who dug dikes, or derived from bull + dick, perhaps in reference to black men.