Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about the meaning of the English language term of endearment "bookee" (also spelled "bookee", "bukie" and "bookie").The content of this post is presented for etymological and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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WHAT DOES "BOO KEE" MEAN?
The creation of the word "bookee" was probably influenced by multiple informal terms of endearmenat that end in "ie" or "y", particularly "poopsie", "tootsie", and "pookie".
-snip-
The term of endearment "Boo kee" has an entirely different meaning and pronounciation than the English language word "bookie". "A bookie is a person who determines gambling odds and receives and pays off bets : Bookmaker" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bookie
This definition of "bookie" is pronounced like the word "book" (which rhymes with "look") and the
word "key" which rhymes with "be" (and "bee").
The English language word "boo kee" ("bukie" etc.) rhymes with the English words "you" + "key", "new +key", Lou + key". "Key" is pronounced "kee" (with no elongation of the letters "e").
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AN ONLINE EXCERPT FROM A 2018 DISCUSSION THREAD ABOUT THE TERM OF ENDEARMENT "BUKIE"
[The numbers of the comments that are given below are the same as the numbers that are found in that discussion thread.]
From https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/bukie.3428243/ Bukie
#1 MidnightCharm
(Spanish - Spain
Feb 24, 2018)
"Hi everybody!
What does it mean in America to call someone bukie? In the
reality show Big Brother a young man was talking to his fiancée and he said
Come here, bukie and they hugged."
**
dojibear
(Fresno CA
US English
Feb 24, 2018)
"I've never seen this word. I am not sure how to pronounce
this spelling. Is it "byuu-kee"? Is it "boo-kee"? Is it
"buh-kee"?)
#3
MidnightCharm
(Spanish - Spain
Feb 24, 2018)
"I think it's `` boo-kee ´´
**
#6
MidnightCharm
(Spanish - Spain
Feb 24, 2018"
")ou little ripper! said:
How do know this is how it's spelt, MC? Are you sure you
heard it correctly? :)
I know because in Big Brother whenever they're speaking with low/soft voice the program writes whatever they say using subtitles, and this was one of those instances. In Urban Dictionary they say it's a kinda laughable term.
Sparky Malarky said:
It could be a variant of pookie, which is a little more
common. But anything can be used as an endearment.”…
-snip-
No one in that small discussion thread was familiar with the term "bukie" ("boo kee" etc.)
ONLINE EXCERPTS ABOUT SOME ENGLISH WORDS ENDING IN "IE"
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: As I wrote above, I believe that certain terms of affection that end in "ie" or "y" influenced the coinage of the word "boo kee" ("bukie", "bookie", etc.)
NOUN
(also poopsy)
informal US
A small child (especially a child of the speaker); a
sweetheart. Chiefly as a term of endearment or affectionate form of address.
Origin
1930s; earliest use found in The Sheboygan Press. Perhaps
alteration of popsy, after tootsy.
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Excerpt #2: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/46356/origin-of-tootsie-or-tootsy-foot
1. “tootsy
also tootsie, 1854, baby-talk substitution for foot. Candy
bar Tootsie Roll patent claims use from 1908.
And it sounds like a combination of toe and foot.
answered Oct 26 '11 at 9:10
Hugo
2. "
At length all the preparations are completed, and a temporary quiet reigns through the house; but it is like the lull of the elements after a boisterous day in March, before it begins to rain. The last ring has brought the last parcel to the door, which of course ought to have arrived first in the morning; the small children have been rapidly undressed and put to bed with the wild notion that they will stay there, and not walk calmly down stairs some three or four hours afterwards in their night-gowns, with their little naked white tootsy-pootsies (the nursery patois for tiny feet) pattering on the cold floor-cloth…
The use of tootsy as a familiar word affection seems to have occurred at about the same time. From "Matrimonial Dictionary," in Punch (September 26, 1846):
TOOTSY, MOOTSY, and all words ending in tsy, are terms of great endearment. The exact meaning of them has never been ascertained. They are never heard after thirty…..
Indeed Albert Smith, The Struggles and Adventures of
Christopher Tadpole at Home and Abroad (1847) has a character call his wife
"Tootsy," with this brief explanation:
"Well, I don't quite know, Tootsy,"—it was a relic of their honeymoon, that "Tootsy," which Mrs. Gudge still liked to be called. "I've met 'em before though, I think at Sir F's."
I would be remiss not to cite the entry for tootsies in John Hotten, The Slang Dictionary (1864):
TOOTSIES, feet, those of ladies and children in particular. In married life it is said the husband uses this expression for the first six months, after that he terms them HOOFS.
answered Jan 2 '19 at 0:31
Sven Yargs
-snip-
The bold font was originally used in this comment.
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Excerpt #3
From
[The numbers used in this 2022 post are different than the numbers used in that 2017 post.]
a. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:pookie
....”Pookie is a common euphemism to describe something cute. It is also often used as a pet name or as a term of endearment for one's significant other." added somehow. (was recently removed from wikipedia as a dicdef). thanks :) -Quiddity 03:08, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
Pet name
In my experience, pookie is a pet name, as attested in What’s Wrong, Little Pookie? by Sandra Boynton (and other such books Happy Birthday, Little Pookie); it’s also used in books by Ivy Wallace (UK 1950s). Don’t know if these are sufficient attestations – it’s admittedly more used orally (esp. in casual, intimate conversation) than in writing.
—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) ... 4 June 2010 (UTC)
[...]
Noun" pookie
(colloquial) lover
A term of endearment used for a loved one"....
To linguist and writer John McWhorter, Pookie is the kind of ghetto character played by Cedric the Entertainer or Chris Tucker in one of those Barbershop or Friday movies. In the 1960s and '70s, he would have gone by Leroy, Tyrone or Otis.
Pookie, according to Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and writer about race, is "nearly a pop-culture folk-figure in black circles." He is the average black every-youth.
While Gray said Pookie goes way back, Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University, believes he has come into his own only in the last decade, as a "metaphor for kin ... who everybody knows is just a little trifling and a little lazy."....
c. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pookie&page=5
"Pookie
A generic term used by African Americans to reference a lazy and aimless relative, who, however endearing, is also an embarrassment.
"I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote; I need you to grab Ray Ray to vote,"
-Barack Obama
#pooky#shaniqua#taliqua#tyrone#barack#obama"
by mijoca1 July 12, 2008
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As a personal reflection, I started calling my daughter "baby boo" and "boo kee" when she was a baby. (African American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1973). I often elongated the word "boo kee" so it sounded like "booooo kee". I sporatically continued calling her that affectionate term throughout her childhood and even since she became an adult. "Boo kee" wasn't/isn't her nickname, but was/is an affectionate term like "honey" or "sweetie pie".
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, my daughter hasn't used "boo kee" as an affectionate term for her daughter. I asked her about that today (because of this post), and she said that she had heard the word "boo" but thought that I had made up the word "boo kee" as a special name just for her. She also said that she had never heard anyone else using the word "boo kee".
Come to think of it, I never heard anyone else use that word either.
I can't remember why I first started using it, but I still like it, particularly when I elongated it (when my daughter was a baby.) I remember it made her laugh.