Wiktionary

butch

See also: Butch

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Originally, it was probably used as an abbreviation of butcher. Later, in the 1940s, the sense “masculine lesbian” developed.

Adjective

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butch (comparative butcher or more butch, superlative butchest or most butch)

  1. (slang, originally Polari) Very masculine, with a masculine appearance or attitude.
    Synonyms: macho, manly, mannish, unfeminine, masc
    • 1967, Barry Took, Marty Feldman, Round the Horne, spoken by Sandy (Kenneth Williams):
      There, look, Mr. Horne! Vada that great butch lucoddy!
    • 1979, Colin MacInnes, Out of the way: later essays:
      Nor can I credit that a — to put it crudely — proud bisexual butch Italian — albeit one lonely, poor, emotional and without strong will — which Giovanni is shown to be in the earlier part of the book, should become, in a mere matter of months, and as the result of any happening, the venal hysterical fairy that he does.
    • 1998, Kath Weston, Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color, Nation, Studmuffins‎[2], Columbia University Press, →ISBN:
      Then I started going out with different kinds of women, and I started feeling more like I wanted to be more butch. […] I feel much more butch than I feel femme.
    • 2007, Beth A. Firestein, Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Across the Lifespan, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 305:
      The process of appreciating a butch aesthetic may be even more complex for bisexual butch women. In contrast to lesbian butches who may date only within a butch-femme community, bisexual butch women may be more likely to […] In comparison to butch bisexual women, it may be easier for femme bisexual women to locate male and female dating partners […]
    • 2014, Naomi S Tucker, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, Routledge, →ISBN, page 186:
      More of the rotten responses I receive about being a bisexual butch woman come from other bisexuals, particularly men, who don't want to deal with any woman who is not some Barbie doll standard of femininity.
    • 2016, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3154: Coupling:
      "Faye got wicked buff and has a super butch haircut and it is hot as shit." "It's okay, babe. We can ogle her together."
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

butch (plural butches)

  1. (slang, LGBTQ, countable) A lesbian who appears masculine or acts in a masculine manner.
    Synonyms: bull dyke, dyke; see also Thesaurus:female homosexual
    Antonym: femme
    • 1997, Bi Academic Intervention, Bisexual Imaginary: Representation, Identity, and Desire, A&C Black (→ISBN), page 30, quoting Jo Eadie:
      Coming out appeals to the narcissistic pleasure of presenting to another a finished image of ourselves, which they return to us in exactly the same form: [someone tells] you [they are] a bisexual butch, and you confirm it. But instead, it seems all too likely – especially, perhaps, for bisexuals, whose claims to identity always need that much more proof – that no such mirror-image will be returned.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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Back-formation from butcher.[1]

Verb

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butch (third-person singular simple present butches, present participle butching, simple past and past participle butched)

  1. (nonstandard, intransitive) To work as a butcher.
    • 1787, Robert Burns, “Death and Doctor Hornbook. A True Story.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Edinburgh: […] the Author, and sold by William Creech, page 59:
      Sax thouſand years are near hand fled, / Sin’ I was to the butching bred, / And mony a ſcheme in vain’s been laid, / To ſtap or ſcar me; / Till ane Hornbook’s ta’en up the trade, / And faith, he’ll waur me.
    • [1846, John Trotter Brockett, W[illiam] E[dward] Brockett, A Glossary of North Country Words, with Their Etymology, and Affinity to Other Languages; and Occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions, 3rd edition, volume I, Newcastle upon Tyne: Emerson Charnley, […]; and Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., London, page 75:
      Butch, to practice the trade of a butcher, to kill.]
    • 1864, [Arthur Robins], “Job Redcar’s Suspicion”, in Black Moss. A Tale by a Tarn., volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], page 78:
      And sometimes he also displayed by the side of his brooms, some spare-ribs after the killing of a neighbour’s pig—but there was no one in Black Moss who was a regular purveyor of any sort of meat. Certain there were indeed who “butched a bit noo an’ then,” but they looked for their meat to a butcher who journeyed to them from afar twice a week in the winter, and three times in the season.
    • 1875, John H[oward] Nodal, George Milner, A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect, Manchester: ([…] [F]or the Literary Club by) Alexander Ireland & Co., […]. London: Trübner & Co., […], page 63:
      BUTCH, v. to kill animals for food. as a butcher does. / Coll. Use. 1875. He use’t to be a farmer, but he butches neaw.
    • 1927, Walter de la Mare, “Meat”, in Stuff and Nonsense and So On, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, page 16:
      From out his red and sawdust shop / This butcher, born to chepe and chop, / Surveys without a trace of grief / Perambulating tombs of beef. / […] / It’s probable we never shall / Convince him that an animal / Is not mere layers of lean and fat; / He may have butched too much for that.
    • 1905 November 4, Allison Yewell, “Geographical Nonsense”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 178, number 19, Philadelphia, Pa., page 19:
      A butcher who butched in Des Moines, / As his customers passed him des coines, / Said: “What will you take / In the way of a steak? / Here’s a very nice piece off des loines.”
    • 1924 October, Bruce Barton, “The Way I Want to Die”, in The Reader’s Digest, volume 3, number 30, page 359, column 1:
      I expect to retire after that fashion—by changing work. The most serious weakness in our present social system is that everyone has to stick at the same thing all the time. It would be much more exciting if the butcher, having butched until his spirit is a bit weary, might become a Senator.
    • 2022, Ira Nayman, The Ugly Truth (Transdimensional Authority), Dartford: Elsewhen Press, →ISBN:
      I never wanted to be a politician. In my home universe, I was a butcher. Meat was my life. I butched.
  2. (nonstandard, transitive) To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
    • 1834, Henry Taylor, Philip van Artvelde; a Dramatic Romance. […], 2nd edition, part II, London: Edward Moxon, […], pages 70–71:
      Take thy huge offal and white liver hence, / Or in a twinkling of this true-blue steel / I shall be butching thee from nape to rump.
    • 1868, Anne Bowman, The Young Nile-Voyagers, London: George Routledge and Sons, […]. New York: […] , page 297:
      “Couldn’t Ali butch the cow, please?” said Bill, whose ears were ever open when the question of food was raised.
    • 1918 July, Wm. Self Weeks, ““Butching””, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume IV, number 82, page 199, column 1:
      I can vouch that it is in regular use in Clitheroe and the neighbouring district, where such expressions as “I butched three sheep yesterday,” or “He used to be a farmer, but has now gone into the butching business,” are very frequently heard.
    • 1943 August 15, “All About Horse Meat”, in Sales Management, volume 52, number 17, page 2, column 2:
      However, the idea of horse meat for animal food is thoroughly established, and this industry has grown up in California because there seem to be more dogs and cats per capita than elsewhere; because horse meat sold in special pet food shops always has been economical, costing less than half as much as butcher’s meat. Even before the meat was freely sold in fresh form, it was butched regularly for dog food canners.
    • 2004, Gregorio Hernandez Zamora, Identity and Literacy Development: Life Histories of Marginal Adults in Mexico City, University of California, Berkeley, page 233:
      Growing every pig takes between 8 and 12 months, and once they are ready to be butched, he sells them for 1500 to 2000 pesos (150-200 USD).
    • 2013, Queen Zakia Shabazz, The Old Lady and . . . . ., Trafford Publishing, published 2016, →ISBN:
      She turned to the butcher and said, “butcher butcher butch the cow […]”

References

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  1. ^ “butch, v.1”, in OED Online  ⁠‎[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000, archived from the original on 2023-09-12.

Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English butch.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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butch f (plural butchs)

  1. (gay slang) butch (masculine queer woman) (contrast fem)
    • 2001, Marie-Hélène Bourcier, Queer zones: politiques des identités sexuelles, des représentations et des savoirs:
      " […] un couple qui fonctionne requiert des individus dichotomiques qu’il s’agisse d’un homme et d’une femme ou bien d’une butch et d’une femme", Lilian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2005, Marie-Hélène Bourcier, Sexpolitiques: queer zones 2, La Fabrique éditions:
      Une butch qui n’aurait aucune sexualité en laisserait-elle tomber pour autant: la chemise, le monocle, les Doc Martens, […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2007, Eli Flory, Ces femmes qui aiment les femmes, Archipel, →ISBN:
      Une butch n’est pas une fem, qui n’est pas une lipstick. […] À l’origine, butch se disait aussi bien pour un homme que pour une femme qui accusait une apparence « très masculine ». Le butch man est l’homme  […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2007, Les inrockuptibles:
      On me traitait comme ça, comme une butch. Mais la plupart des femmes avec […] Mais il me traitait comme une femme. C’était totalement […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2008, Claude Guillon, Je chante le corps critique: Les usages politiques du corps:
      […] à jouer tel rôle social de sexe, en manifestent néanmoins ardemment le désir ou en arborent les signes extérieurs de manière la plus ostentatoire possible. Une butch américaine déclare : « Je n’ai jamais renoncé à la femme qui est en moi. »
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2012, Gaëtan Duchateau, Florent Guerlain, Dernier inventaire avant le mariage pour tous, Stock, →ISBN, page 40:
      En 1995, Josiane Balasko apparaît sous les traits d’une butch (voir Argot) de compétition dans Gazon maudit, qu’elle a […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2013, Denise Mina, La fin de la saison des guêpes, Le Masque, →ISBN:
      Cette femme n’avait rien d’une butch, mais c’était un look que les lesbiennes ne suivaient plus.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

German

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English butch.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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butch (indeclinable)

  1. butch

Synonyms

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Further reading

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  • “butch” in Duden online
  • “butch” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
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