juke joints

[mrghd]

(source: Iceberg Slim - Pimp, The story of my life)

section of the novel that contains the expression:

"On campus, I was like a fox in a chicken coop. Within ninety days after I got down there I had slit the maidenhead on a halfdozen curvy coeds.
Somehow I managed to get through the Freshman year, but my notoriety was getting awful. The campus finks were envious, and it was too dangerous to continue to impale coeds on my stake.
In my Sophomore year, I started going into the hills near the campus to juke joints. With my slick Northern dress and manner, I was prince charming in spades to the pungent, hot-ass maidens in the hills."

Background:


Slim describes that in the first year of middle school he was very active sexually on the campus, he brought more girls to bed and his mates became envy of him. Thus, in the second year he decided to manage his dates outside the campus.


But where exactly? What does 'juke joints' mean?

 

[BobK]

Brothels, I think. But I expect the Urban Dictionary would tell you for sure. (Couldn't you have guessed?)

b

PS His mates became envious of him, or he was the envy of his mates.
PPS I believe 'juke boxes' were so-called because they replaced the live pianist in what were known at the time as 'Sporting Houses'.

 

[Tdol]

Juke/juke joint

 

[probus]

I doubt the Gullah origin of juke given in the yahoo dictionary.

The etymology I have heard is that juke came from a West African word meaning to pierce or penetrate. The word is still in use today in the Caribbean islands, but there it is chook with a short oo. I heard it recently in a soca number in which a female singer tells the doctor "It's your injection I want" and urges him to "Chook me wit' your needle".

 

[Tdol]

That is the AHD, which Yahoo seem to have bought. I cannot comment on the etymology, though.

 

[5jj]

The full OED version is very similar to the AHD/Yahoo, as is the one in Webster's 3rd. Sam Johnson, not surprisingly, doesn't mention it, but yu may (or may well not) be fascinated to learn that he has:

TO JUKE. v.n. [jucher , French]

1. To perch upon any thing: as, birds.
2. Juking, in Scotland, denotes ſtill any complaiſance by bending of the head.

Two aſſess travelled; the one laden with oats, the other with money: the money merchant was ſo proud of his truſt, that he went juking and toſſing of his head. L’Eʃtrange.

 

[Tdol]

Here's the SOED:

juke /0dʒu:k/ noun & verb¹. slang (orig. US). M20.​

[ORIGIN Prob. from Gullah juke, joog disorderly, wicked, of W. African origin: cf. Mande dyougou wicked.]​

​

► A noun. More fully juke house, juke joint. A roadhouse, a brothel; spec. one providing food, drinks, and music for dancing. M20.​

​

► B verb intrans. Dance, esp. at a juke joint or to the music of a jukebox. M20.​

 

[probus]

Appendix:Glossary of Trinidadian English - Wiktionary

There you find the following in the Glossary of Trinidadian English. No etymology though.

Chook - to pierce (or jook), usu. in reference to needles. Can also refer to dancing which involves the thrusting of one's hips forward sharply into the rear of another. May also refer to sexual intercourse. E.g. Riad took a little chook from the girl.

The etymologists quoted above are going to have a very tough time explaining how a Gullah word made a journey of 2,700 kilometres south to Trinidad.

 

[Tdol]

They're based in Oxford so it might not look so far on the globe. ;-)

 

[BobK]

:up: And the slave trade might come into it somewhere. The traders made a point of mixing ethnic/language-groups, to prevent insurrection. So it's not improbable that a slaver would would sail south down the African coast picking up a few here and a few there, before crossing the Atlantic. (I think the Trade Winds would make a direct crossing from a Gullah-speaking area unlikely, but my geography's pretty shaky...)

b