I'm going to start referring to all music as "tonk" to retroactively make honky-tonk literally translate to white people music. My idiolect is idiotic.
"Honky-tonk" in reference to the business/music genre does predate "Honky" as a term for white people. It wouldn't surprise me if the terms are related, but I can't find a link on a cursory search.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Honky came from Honky-tonk. Homonyms do sometimes have completely unrelated etymologies, like with the word "Pussy" meaning coward, and being a slang term for the vulva. The cowardly definition came from a shortening of the word "Pusillanimous," while the slang term came from women being compared to cats.
Homonyms do sometimes have completely unrelated etymologies, like with the word “Pussy” meaning coward, and being a slang term for the vulva. The cowardly definition came from a shortening of the word “Pusillanimous,” while the slang term came from women being compared to cats.
"Pussy" in the sense of "female genitals" is more likely related to "purse", referring to the vagina's pocket-like shape; and "pussy" in the sense of "weakling" is either ordinary misogyny or a reference to a kitten's helplessness.
(And "pussy" for an actual cat is related to words for "cat" in some other European languages, like Romanian pisică; which ultimately come from the pss-pss call that is effective at getting a cat's attention.)
If you want a funny etymological example though, take a look at the word "cleave". In modern English it has two opposed meanings: "cling together" and "split apart". This is because it was two different verbs in Old English, cleofan (the "split" meaning, related to "clove" and "glyph") and clifian (the "cling" meaning, related to "clay" and "glue")!
There is an etymology section in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honky-tonk but it will leave you disappointed unfortunately. It's a lot of could be this or could be that but mainly eff knows.
10 replies
I'm going to start referring to all music as "tonk" to retroactively make honky-tonk literally translate to white people music. My idiolect is idiotic.
I'm gonna start referring to every dialect as idiolect because it's always idiots talking. It's me I'm idiots
"Honky-tonk" in reference to the business/music genre does predate "Honky" as a term for white people. It wouldn't surprise me if the terms are related, but I can't find a link on a cursory search.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Honky came from Honky-tonk. Homonyms do sometimes have completely unrelated etymologies, like with the word "Pussy" meaning coward, and being a slang term for the vulva. The cowardly definition came from a shortening of the word "Pusillanimous," while the slang term came from women being compared to cats.
"Pussy" in the sense of "female genitals" is more likely related to "purse", referring to the vagina's pocket-like shape; and "pussy" in the sense of "weakling" is either ordinary misogyny or a reference to a kitten's helplessness.
(And "pussy" for an actual cat is related to words for "cat" in some other European languages, like Romanian pisică; which ultimately come from the pss-pss call that is effective at getting a cat's attention.)
If you want a funny etymological example though, take a look at the word "cleave". In modern English it has two opposed meanings: "cling together" and "split apart". This is because it was two different verbs in Old English, cleofan (the "split" meaning, related to "clove" and "glyph") and clifian (the "cling" meaning, related to "clay" and "glue")!
What makes pussy < purse more likely? I've seen both put forward as equally likely possibilities.
WELL NOW I HAVE TO KNOW TOO
Just like a honky
There is an etymology section in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honky-tonk but it will leave you disappointed unfortunately. It's a lot of could be this or could be that but mainly eff knows.
Same with "honky".
clearly, someone needs to ask billy bob tnornton.