My husband and I are fixing to carry our bohunkuses down by
Baton Rouge to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. Readers familiar with dialect of South
Louisiana understand what that statement says.
Others may get the gist generally.
Translated into Standard English I have stated that my husband and I are
getting ready to take our butts down to Baton Rouge to celebrate my father’s 80th
birthday.
While “fixing to” is a quirky phrase in Southern dialect,
bohunkus is the focus of this blog. “Bohunkus”
does not appear at all in my new American Heritage Dictionary, 5th
ed. Nor does it appear in my Chambers Slang Dictionary. It does appear, however, in my Random House Historical Dictionary of
American Slang.
Growing up, we used bohunkus as a fun way to say “butt.” It was never in my experience an
inappropriate usage. “Bohunkus” is a combination
of “bohunk,” referring to a contemptuous usage of the word “bohemian” or person
from Central or Eastern Europe, and “hunk” or “haunches.” The RHHDAS
cites usages in literature by Eudora Welty in 1941 and Lewis Grizzard in 1980 and
a usage in popular culture on the situation comedy, “Golden Girls” in 1989.
Even as a word of Southern slang, “bohunkus” seems to have
fallen from popular (or unpopular) usage.
However unwieldy, it is a fun word which I am doing my part to keep
alive. Now I am going to take my
bohunkus outside and enjoy this beautiful spring weather!
