# etymology of "tomboy"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-tomboy/238895>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 8, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-tomboy/238895 "2004-04-08T03:54:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Llamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Llamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llamer)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-tomboy/238895/1 "2004-04-08T03:54:19Z")

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I bet this has been covered before, so GREAT, this won’t take very long…

TOMBOY. A word to describe a girl/woman who generally appears to exhibit characteristics of the male gender. E.g., a girl who mostly wears a baseball cap, long pants, and is one hell of a shortstop. She has no interest in knitting or baking cookies, et cetera.

Is this word related at all to the near dated term “tom,” which used to describe a black man or woman who actively exhibited characteristics of white people/society, in an attempt to deny their own blackness? The root of which comes from “Uncle Tom,” as in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” a book by some guy written way back when.

Just a connection I made in class today when some professor or something was talking…  
thanks for the insight

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-tomboy/238895/2 "2004-04-08T04:37:02Z")

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According to **Dictionary of Word Origins** , the term _tomboy_ originated in the 16th century, originally meant a ‘rude or boisterous boy’ and evolved to mean a ‘girl who behaves like a boisterous boy’ by the end of the 16th century.

Since the term “Uncle Tom” originates from the novel **Uncle Tom’s Cabin** by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Not the other way around…cite: according to [this article](http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/uncle_tom.htm)), which was not published until 1852, it’s impossible for “tomboy” to be derived from “Uncle Tom”.