The short, sordid history of how the bulldozer got its name
February 3, 2015 10:26 AM   Subscribe

You might think the word bulldozer came from a brand, like Biro and Hoover. Perhaps it refers to some agricultural practice using bulls to move stuff around? The reality is far more chilling - and to find it, you have to look back to the US in 1876 and what "historians suggest may have been the most hard-fought, corrupt and rigged election in the history of the Union".
posted by Devonian (15 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
I know of a few technical terms that refer to equipment nowadays that used to refer to jobs or occupations that actual people once performed (i.e. "router" or "computer"), but this one takes the cake.
posted by surazal at 10:40 AM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


Very interesting, thanks for this.

I had to Google Biro, I've never heard of it. Folks don't use that word in my neck of the woods.

For others who may be uninformed: "A brand of ballpoint pen. In British English and other languages the word "Biro" is often used as a generic term for any ballpoint pen."
posted by Daddy-O at 11:14 AM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


I love World Wide Words--as a resource and a place to deposit procrastination energy. Great example to share, and I encourage everyone to spend some time flipping through the entries!
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:15 AM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


....this one takes the cake.

Another nasty one was the Iron Chink (mechanized fish gutter).
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:19 AM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]



Henry Thomas (1874 – 1930) recorded twenty-three sides between 1927 and 1929. . . Thomas' "Bull Doze Blues" remained an obscure blues number until it was picked up by the blues-rock group Canned Heat, as the basis for the song "Going Up the Country". . . musically identical down to a faithful rendition of Thomas's quills solos.

"I'm going where I never get bull-dozed
I'm going where I never get the bull dose
I'm going where I never get bull-dozed"
 
posted by Herodios at 11:23 AM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


I learnt about this (and Henry Thomas) from the MeFi post about Turkey In The Straw.
posted by zamboni at 11:26 AM on February 3, 2015


Ah, sorry about Biro. I ddin't realise it was UK-specific. Lazlo Biro is a great name, though.

Another British English term, fittingly, is JCB for backhoe, after the company that makes most of those found around these parts. JCB the company deserves an FPP on its own - family-owned, it's the third biggest construction equipment company in the world and is endearingly quirky - model giraffes in the head office, building its own full-sized golf course and that sort of thing.

And I missed the bull-doze reference in the Turkey in the Straw thread on searching, because bulldozer was never explicitly referenced, although just about every other variant was. The semiotic web has a way to go (or my MeFiSearchFu...).

As for the election of 1876, that seems like a movie waiting to be made. I had no idea...
posted by Devonian at 11:40 AM on February 3, 2015


I know of a few technical terms that refer to equipment nowadays that used to refer to jobs or occupations that actual people once performed (i.e. "router" or "computer"), but this one takes the cake.

"Typewriter" is another one, with "typist" being the retronym.
Thanks for this FPP. Fascinating.
posted by w0mbat at 12:28 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


General Dozier
Shoulda had a
Bulldozer
posted by charlie don't surf at 1:10 PM on February 3, 2015


Hmm. Is "bull gang" related to this? My half-hearted search turns up nothing useful.
posted by RobotHero at 2:34 PM on February 3, 2015


It's been a long journey from uncondign punishment. What?
posted by unliteral at 3:27 PM on February 3, 2015


con·dign
adjective formal
(of punishment or retribution) appropriate to the crime or wrongdoing; fitting and deserved.

So I guess uncondign means not appropriate, in the context of punishments. I have never seen the word before.
posted by Triplanetary at 4:29 PM on February 3, 2015


I have the Webster 1913 dictionary. It's been there all the time:

Bull"doze` v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bulldozed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Bulldozing.] To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; -- used originally of the intimidation of negro voters, in Louisiana.
[Slang, U.S.]

Bull"do`zer n. One who bulldozes.
[Slang]

Wow!
[Slang]
posted by hexatron at 5:08 PM on February 3, 2015


After bulldozer, I searched for other mentions of Louisiana:

Ca"jun n. [A corruption of Acadian.] (Ethnol.) In Louisiana, a person reputed to be Acadian French descent. Also used attributively, as in Cajun cooking.

Col*la"tion n. [OE. collacioun speech, conference, reflection, OF. collacion, F. collation, fr. L. collatio a bringing together, comparing, fr. collatum (used as the supine of conferre); col- + latium (used as the supine of ferre to bear), for tlatum. See Tolerate, v. t.] 1. The act of collating or comparing; a comparison of one copy er thing (as of a book, or manuscript) with another of a like kind; comparison, in general.
Pope.
2. (Print.) The gathering and examination of sheets preparatory to binding.
3. The act of conferring or bestowing.
[Obs.]
Not by the collation of the king . . . but by the people.
—Bacon.
4. A conference.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
5. (Eccl. Law) The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.
6. (Law) (a) The act of comparing the copy of any paper with its original to ascertain its conformity.
(b) The report of the act made by the proper officers.
7. (Scots Law) The right which an heir has of throwing the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, and sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.
☞ This also obtains in the civil law, and is found in the code of Louisiana.
Bouvier.
8. (Eccles.) A collection of the Lives of the Fathers or other devout work read daily in monasteries.
9. A light repast or luncheon; as, a cold collation; -- first applied to the refreshment on fast days that accompanied the reading of the collation in monasteries.
A collation of wine and sweetmeats.
—Whiston.
Collation of seals (Old Law), a method of ascertaining the genuineness of a seal by comparing it with another known to be genuine.
Bouvier.

Cre"ole (kr?"?l), a. Of or pertaining to a Creole or the Creoles.
☞ In New Orleans the word Creole is applied to any product, or variety of manufacture, peculiar to Louisiana; as, Creole ponies, chickens, cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, etc.

Dot (dŏt), n. [F., fr. L. dos, dotis, dowry. See Dower, and cf. Dote dowry.] (Law) A marriage portion; dowry.
[Louisiana]

Fip"pen*ny bit` (? or ?). [Corruption of five penny bit.] The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar, -- so called in Pennsylvania and the adjacent States.
[Obs.]
☞ Before the act of Congress, Feb. 21, 1857, caused the adoption of decimal coins and the withdrawal of foreign coinage from circulation, this coin passed currently for 61/4 cents, and was called in New England a fourpence ha'penny or fourpence; in New York a sixpence; in Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc., a fip; and in Louisiana, a picayune.

Gum"bo (gŭm"bỏ), n. [Written also gombo.] 1. A soup thickened with the mucilaginous pods of the okra; okra soup.
Especially, A thick stew made with chicken (chicken gumbo), or seafood (seafood gumbo), thickened with okra or file, and also containing greens and often hot spices; it is particularly popular in Louisiana.
2. The okra plant or its pods.

{ La*gniappe La*gnappe" (?) }, n. [Also spelled lagnappe.][Etym. uncertain.] 1. In Louisiana, a trifling present given to customers by tradesmen; a gratuity.
Lagniappe . . .is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.
—Mark Twain.
2. A tip or gratuity.
3. Hence: Anything obtained gratuitously or unexpectedly.

(Deep in the definition of Law):Civil law, a term used by writers to designate Roman law, with modifications thereof which have been made in the different countries into which that law has been introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law, prevails in the State of Louisiana

Mar`a*bou" (măr"ȧboˉo"), n. [F.] 1. (Zoöl.) A large black-and-white carrion-eating stork of the genus Leptoptilos (formerly Ciconia), esp. the African species (Leptoptilus crumeniferus syn. Leptoptilos crumenifer), whose downy under-wing feathers are used to trim garments; called also marabout. The Asiatic species (Leptoptilos dubius, or Leptoptilos argala) is the adjutant. See Adjutant.
[Written also marabu.]
2. One having five eighths negro blood; the offspring of a mulatto and a griffe.
[Louisiana]
Bartlett.

There are six more entries, but after the marabou and the griffe, I am so done.
Though I did finally learn what langniappe means (it's one of those see-and-then-never-look-up- words for me)
posted by hexatron at 5:42 PM on February 3, 2015


It appears that three states where bulldozing was most common ended up being awarded to the Republicans, the party that the newly freed slaves were probably voting for (hence the whipping by Democrats). So Hayes, the Republican, won the White House -- but at the cost of withdrawing all the troops that were enforcing Reconstruction. I wonder what the people who had been whipped so brutally thought about that. Some victory.

I guess they were probably going to get clobbered no matter who won the election.
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:55 AM on February 4, 2015


« Older RIP Monty Oum   |   "I'm so thirsty, my legs are frail. What am I to... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments