booty

[JANE DOErell]

From Yahoo (ada AHD?)

boo·ty2 (bt)also boo·dy (-d)
NOUN:
pl. boo·ties, also boo·dies
Slang The buttocks.
Vulgar Slang
1. The vulva or vagina.
2. Sexual intercourse.

ETYMOLOGY:
African American Vernacular English, from obsolete Black English booty, body, perhaps alteration of body

What are the dates on the etymology?

[Bobinwales]

Booty where I come from means goods obtained not always legally. Have we found another I say tomato, you say tomato?

[JANE DOErell]

Booty where I come from means goods obtained not always legally. Have we found another I say tomato, you say tomato?

For several decades I thought of booty as something pirates got off other persons ships. I cannot recall when I first heard booty with a sexual connotation. Now it is quite common on TV. Hence the question about dates.

[Phil White]

I can recall when I first (and last) heard it: 1977 The Heatwave album "Too hot to handle", song "Beat your booty (if you ain't been doin' your duty)"

As a Brit, I don't ever remember hearing it outside that single context.

[Erik_Kowal]

Phil W, you might want to listen to the 1976 hit by KC and the Sunshine Band, 'Shake your booty' (lyrics here).

'Booty' also cropped up in the context of the term 'booty call' in this previous discussion.

Jane, in the sense you are asking about, The Cassell Dictionary of Slang describes the expression as a 1920s+ US black term.

[PhilHunt]

booty
"plunder, gain, profit," mid-15c., from O.Fr. butin "booty" (14c.), from a Gmc. source akin to M.L.G. bute "exchange." Influenced in form and sense by boot (2) and in form by nouns ending in -y. Meaning "female body considered as a sex object" is 1920s, black slang.

Etymonline.com

[trolley]

(British) Boot= (American) Trunk
"Trunk" is also used to refer to a woman's backside.
Someone with a large one is said to have "a lot of junk in the trunk". Years from now, someone could make up an entirely believable etymology for "booty" by making a connection between the position of the bum and the boot of the car.

[Ken Greenwald]

Jane, Here are the dates from the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY and I’m including some pirate’s booty while I’m at it (for Bob).

BOOTY (also BOOTIE) noun 1

1) Originally: Plunder, gain, or profit acquired in common and destined to be divided among the winners

a) [1474]: That which is taken from an enemy in war; the collective plunder or spoil. (No plural)

b ) [1567]: That which is captured by robbers or thieves.

2) [1577]: Obsolete A thing taken by force; a prize.

3) [1590]: loosely. Plunder, spoil, gain; a prize; without reference to its being common property.
_________________________________________

BOOTY noun 2 (also BOODY, BOOTIE) slang (originally and chiefly among African-Americans [[not any more]]) [Probably an altered form of botty, noun, an infant’s posterior, which came from ‘bottom,’ the sitting part of a man, the posteriors, the seat. Perhaps influenced (especially in sense 1 below) by BOOTY sense 1 above)]

1) [1926]: Sexual intercourse; a person (especially a woman) regarded as an object of sexual ambition or desire. Also (occasionally): the female genitals. Cf. ( ‘ass,’ meaning sexual gratification. Also, a woman or women, regarded as an object affording this.)

<1926 “Now..that you've gone white, do you really want . . . pinks for boody?”—Nigger Heaven by C. Van Vechten, II. iii. page 215>

<1935 “If you want good boody Oh, go to Ella Wall.”—Mules & Men by Z. N. Hurston, page 192>

<1978 “I'm giving up neither money or bootie!”—Tragic Magic by W. Brown, page 104>

<1992 “A woman had a ‘pussy’ . . . or ‘booty.’”—Livin' Blues by F. M. Davis, page 36>

<1997 “Grab a glass of wine . . . in the upstairs bar and watch all that fine booty just flow on by.”—Touch, May, page 20/2>

(quotes from the OED)

2) [1959]: The buttocks [[see further discussion and quotes below]]
_________________________________________

BOOTY/BOODY (the posterior)

In its 2010 update the OED gave 1959 as the first-in-print example of BOOTY (see quote below). However the HDAS provided a 1928 first-in-print example (see quote below). And I said to myself that one of these guys had to be wrong. But then I finally realized that this seeming discrepancy was a result of the HDAS’s 1928 quote (which appeared in a 1963 book) using BOODY (with a ‘D’) while the OED’s 1959 quote (used BOOTY ( with a ‘T’). So they might both be right using their respective spellings.

I also noted that the 1960 OED quote (see below), which is a line from a 1920s song appearing in the book Blues Fell this Morning (1960), is identical to the HDAS’s 1928 quote in the book The Meaning of the Blues (1963) (see below) written by the same author, Paul Oliver (1927– ), and both used BOODY with a ‘D.’

Both Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (see Erik above) and Chapman’s Dictionary of American Slang took BOOTY/BOODY as being born in the 1920s. The OED is probably technically correct with their 1959 quote, but most sources just lump BOOTY AND BOODY together and date the pair from the 1920s.

The following BOOTY/BOODY quotes are from the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, the HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG (HDAS), and archived sources:

<1928 “I can strut my boody, make my sweet pigmeat.”—in Meaning of the Blues (1963) by P. Oliver, page 216> [[pigmeat according to Chapman’s Dictionary of American Slang, Spears Slang and Euphemism, and the OED is defined as a sexually loose/promiscuous woman; sexual intercourse ((making love))]]

<1959 “Getting kicked in the booty would be mighty discouraging too.”—Trumbull Park by F. L. Brown, page 363> [[OED’s first in print]]

<1960 “I can strut my boody, make my sweet pigmeat.”—Nellie Florence [[singer]] in Blues Fell this Morning (1960) by P. Oliver, vii. page 189>

<1962 “Will ya dig de booty on dis beauty!”—Burn, Killer, Burn by P. Crump, page 42>

<1966 “I know this oil patch like my old ladies booty, son.”—The Iron Orchard by T. Pendleton, page 6>

<1975 “He work his booty off up there.”—American Boys by S. P. Smith, page 167>

<1980 “‘You're cute up there,’ she told singer Esther Williams. ‘You should shake your booty a little. You have a nice booty. Shake it a little.’”— Washington Post (Nexis), 4 July, page C8>

<1987 “I didn’t do the nude scenes . . . I was a prude. I just looked at the ‘booties.’”—in Black Teen (1988), January, page 11>

<1992 Her booty . . . hangs so low it sweeps up after itself.”—In Living Color ([Fox-TV)

<1999 “This is a woman's best part. . . . A skirt has to scoop under the booty.”—New York Times, 12 December, IX. page 4/3>

<2003 “The star will shake her booty 427 times during the sell-out shows at the Point tonight and tomorrow night but she won't be hitting any bum notes.”—The Mirror (London, England), 15 November>

<2007 “We had sex on our second date, and after that, our dates stopped being dinner and turned into my going straight to his place. I really want to ask how he feels about me, but I'm afraid of scaring him off. If I'm just a booty call, I'll be hurt!”—Oakland Tribune (California), 31 May> [[booty call noun: A visit made to a person for the (sole) purpose of having sexual intercourse; an invitation to have sexual intercourse. (OED). See link in Erik’s posting above)]]

<2010 “It seems Nike has officially jumped on the bandwagon for big butts. In their new ad promoting butt-enhancing shoes, an ethnically-ambiguous woman is shown in what appears to be a pair of panties, tennis shoes and a cut-off tank. This ad follows a similarly booty-minded campaign from 2005 which shows off the curves of a dark-skinned model. Why the change? Stereotypically, the big butt is a black woman thing. But in the new world, where booty is popping up everywhere . . . and even being celebrated, I’m not surprised that Nike chose a safer model . . .”—Tech Target, 3 August>

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the following beauty that I stumbled upon in another dictionary (surprisingly not listed under BOOTY in the OED). However, when I went back to the OED I found it was listed, but with no cross-reference to BOOTY.

And when I saw the 2007 quote below, I realized that I must be living in the Stone Age of music since I never heard of Beyonce nor her evidently famous song. Since my son went off to college, I have mostly been listening to my 5000 or so Napster-pilfered songs and going to folk, Celtic, and classical concerts, losing touch with what is going on in the rest of the musical world:

BOOTYLICIOUS adjective slang (originally U.S.): Especially of a woman, often with reference to the buttocks: sexually attractive, sexy; shapely.

<1994 “Winning the prize for originality: ‘flippen flappin’, an expression of anger; ‘booty-licious’, as good-looking; [etc.].”—Morning Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) (Nexis), 17 January, page 1A>

<1999 “I still think she's bootknockingly bootylicious.”—Slate Magazine (Nexis), 25 January>

<2001 (caption) “It's Hogmanay [[eve of New Year's Day]], time to party and look bootylicious for the Bells.”—Sunday Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), Magazine, 20 December page 29>

<2004 “Sasha's plan was to add muscle mass to butt and hips – make me more ‘bootylicious’ while simultaneously whittling away my waist.”—Chicago Sun-Times, 26 September>

<2007 “Talented, charming and, yes, bootylicious, Beyonce proved she is a true star. But she never got so caught up in being sexy or cool that she forgot to have fun. . . . hits such as ‘Bootylicious,’ . . . had the crowd up and dancing.”—San Jose Mercury News (California), 3 September>

<2010 “Kelly Rowland was one third of Destiny's Child until the world's top girl group drifted apart. . . . So Rowland is a hot-blooded diva. At least I hope so. What more could you expect from one third of the world's most bootylicious girl group . . .”—The Scotsman (Edinburgh, 19 June>

(quotes from the OED and archived sources)
____________________

Ken – October 24, 2010

[Kathylee]

Is there evidence to show that 'butt' 'booty' did not derive from the taking of women as part of winners' booty (plunder) in war?
Or that it did?

does anyone else see this as a strong possibility? where would one look? colonial war chronicles?

thanks, just curious.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. Hi Kathy welcome .. if you look above near the beginning of Ken's epistle you will find under >> BOOTY noun 2, a reference to what you suggest ..

WoZ who is boob man not a booty man