# Wherefore "Dykes?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 17, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666 "2000-11-17T21:55:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/1 "2000-11-17T21:55:42Z")
I can understand the derivation of most racial, religious and sex-related slurs—but “dyke?” I have asked several lesbians, and they are flummoxed by it, too.
Anyone know where this expression comes from, and what the hell it has to do with lesbians?
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/2 "2000-11-17T21:59:03Z")
Something to do with sticking a finger in a moist hole?
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/3 "2000-11-17T22:00:45Z")
. . . Oh, I shoulda seen THAT one coming from a mile off . . .
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### Author:  [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/4 "2000-11-17T22:05:10Z")
Indeed you should have. 😉
I’ve heard a lot of theories, each one a bit more farfetched than the other. There’s one that involves it being a derivation of some goddess Boudikea…
Anyway, from my slang dictionary: Origin uncertain and much debated; perhaps from a shortening of morphodyke, dialectal and substandard pronunciation of “hermaphrodite,” perhaps influenced by “dick” (penis).
In short, no clue whatsoever…
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/5 "2000-11-17T22:14:23Z")
Always glad to oblige with the obvious, m’dear.
Putting this as delicately as I can, is, um, a new prescription on the bifocals appropriate?
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### Author:  [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/6 "2000-11-17T22:19:01Z")
In my slang dictionarry it says: “Possibly, from the dialect term for “trench” Cf. BULLDIKER”.
Pretty close to a wet hole. DYKE or DIKE is also a slang term for lattrine and female genitalia. Go figure!
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/7 "2000-11-17T22:20:13Z")
no way, peace. You’re thinking about “squaw”!
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/8 "2000-11-17T22:41:11Z")
Many theories are discussed here:
[http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ip/sigs/life/gay/history/dyke](http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ip/sigs/life/gay/history/dyke)
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/9 "2000-11-18T17:06:56Z")
Eve It’s not that old. But here are a couple examples from the OED on it’s origin [not all of them cause of the copyright rule]:
1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §405/3 Masculine woman,…dike, dyke.
1959 F. NORMAN Stand on Me iii. 37 Nearly everyone is kinkey on dykes for some reason.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/10 "2000-11-18T17:33:57Z")
‘Cause when I guy finds that a good-looking woman is not interested in guys, the first thing he says is "Dam’".
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/11 "2000-11-18T18:25:26Z")
Yet these two languages have interesting last translations:
Español (Spanish):
represar con diques, dique, represa, lesbiana
Italiano (Italian):
arginare, argine, lesbica (volg.)
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### Author:  [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/12 "2000-11-18T20:11:11Z")
So why are these little plyer-like with cutting edge thingies that I use at work also called dykes?
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### Author:  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/13 "2000-11-18T20:30:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by aenea \*
> **So why are these little plyer-like with cutting edge thingies that I use at work also called dykes?**
I always thought it was spelled “dikes”. It’s a sloppy contraction of DIagonal CutterS (of course, if they were spelled "DIagonal KutterS, it would be more obvious).
~~Baloo
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### Author:  [@aenea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenea)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/14 "2000-11-18T21:42:30Z")
Thank you Baloo.
I have once again learned something. 😃
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/15 "2000-11-19T01:05:01Z")
_Lighter_ takes it back to 1931 in it’s modern meaning…“Benches in the more obscure parts are used continually by couples, pansies, and dykes.”
* * *
Cripes! Now we’ll need a thread on _pansies_
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/16 "2000-11-19T01:52:04Z")
[semi hijack]
How about “fruit” for male homosexual? Where does this derive from?
[/semi hijack]
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2000, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/17 "2000-11-19T04:07:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andygirl \*
> \*\*Indeed you should have. 😉
>
> I’ve heard a lot of theories, each one a bit more farfetched than the other. There’s one that involves it being a derivation of some goddess Boudikea…
> \*\*
That’s Boudicca/Boadicea, who was not a goddess but rather a historical figure. She was the Queen of a British tribe called the Iceni.
I believe the supposed derivation is dyke from bulldyke from Boudicca. . .ridiculous, of course.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2000, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/18 "2000-11-19T04:50:46Z")
**Karl** the term “fruit” to refer to male homosexuals seems to have originated around 1900. At this time, according to _Lighter_, it referred also to “an immoral woman” an “immoral man” and “a disagreeable person”. Yet, at the same time, “fruit” was used on college campuses to denote “a good fellow”. It also implied an easy mark. “One who can be easily deceived”
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2000, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/19 "2000-11-19T07:30:02Z")
Sorry, Eve, I can’t help answer your query. But I would like to commend you on your vocabulary. Even among professionals such as yourself, it’s rare to see the word “wherefore” used correctly.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2000, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wherefore-dykes/41666/20 "2000-11-20T13:23:56Z")
In the content of this thread, isn’t “Dick Van Dyke”
an oxymoron?
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