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Vinony

dyke

noun

  1. Reappropriated term used to refer to lesbians
L16651 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈdaɪ̯k/ / /ˈdʌɪ̯k/ / /ˈdɜɪ̯k/

name

Etymology: * As an English surname, from the noun dyke. * As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Dijk (also compare Dyck).

  1. A village in Bourne parish, South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England, named after Car Dyke (OS grid ref TF1022).
  2. A small village in Moray council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NH9858).
  3. An unincorporated community in Greene County, Virginia, United States.
  4. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 30s. Semantic development from dyke (“ditch”) 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 this is not found in connection 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); compare dike (“noun: well-dressed man; verb: be well dressed”)), bulldyker, and bulldyking, which are all attested earlier than bare dyke, e.g. in Parke's 1906 Human Sexuality, in the speech of Philadelphians, and backcountry black Americans. Compare bulldagger, attested since around the same time and used especially by black women. 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. It has also been suggested dyke is a shortening of morphodyke, from morphodite, from hermaphrodite, but the derivation may go in the other direction instead, with morphodyke being a blend of morphodite with the already-extant word dyke.

  1. A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.
  2. A non-heterosexual woman.
  3. A masculine woman.

verb

Etymology: A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also ditch. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dīkiją (“trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“stick into, pierce; dig, stick a spade into”). The semantic evolution (also seen in several cognate words) was from "stick (a spade) into" to "dig" to "hole or other product of digging", "excavation", then the ridge of earth created when excavating a ditch, then to a ridge of earth intended to prevent flooding.

  1. To dig, particularly to create a ditch.

    “He finds out, soon enough for his weal and his bane, that he is stronger than Nature: and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, dyking, building, without fear or shame.”

  2. To surround with a ditch, to entrench.
  3. To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.
  4. To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river.
  5. To scour a watercourse.
  6. To steep [fibers] within a watercourse.