15 July 2024
The earliest known appearance of duke in English, from the Peterborough Chronicle entry of 1129
A duke is the ruler of a duchy or the highest rank of nobility below the sovereign. The word comes from the Anglo-Norman duc, meaning ruler or general, which in turn is from the Latin dux, leader or general.
The oldest use of the word in English that anyone has found is in the Peterborough Chronicle entry for the year 1129, probably written shortly thereafter and refers to the papal schism that began in that year:
Þes ilces geares forð ferde Honorius papa. Ær he wære wel ded. Þa wære þær coren twa papes. Se an wæs gehaten Petrus. he wæs munec of Clunni. & weas boren of þa ricceste men of Rome. mid him helden ða of Rome. & se duc of Sicilie. Se oðer het Gregorius.
This same year Pope Honorius [II] died. Before he had been dead for very long, there were chosen two popes. One was named Peter [i.e., Antipope Anacletus II]. He was a monk of Cluny and was born of the most powerful men of Rome. Supporting him were those of Rome and the Duke of Sicily. The other was named Gregory [i.e., Innocent II].
But duke, or more usually its plural form dukes, is also a slang term for the hands, especially the fists. The earliest known record of the slang sense is in George Matsell’s 1859 Vocabulum; or, the Rogue’s Lexicon, which defines dukes as “hands” and also includes the word in an appendix of “Technical Words and Phrases in General Use by Pugilists.” Matsell had been New York City’s first police commissioner, so the word’s appearance here hints at an American origin for the slang usage, but there are other only slightly later appearances in Britain, so we cannot say for certain on which side of the Atlantic the usage started.
How duke acquired this slang meaning is not known, but there are two commonly touted explanations. The one better supported by evidence is that it comes from the Romany dukkering, meaning palm reading. Matsell’s Vocabulum also has an entry for dookin cove, which is defined as “a fortune-teller.”
The other explanation was proffered by the 1874 edition of Hotten’s Slang Dictionary:
Dukes, or DOOKS, the hands, originally modification of the rhyming slang, “Duke of Yorks,” forks=fingers, hands—a long way round, but quite true. The word is in common use among low folk. “Put up your DOOKS” is a kind invitation to fight.
An American origin would work against this explanation, but as mentioned, a US origin is not certain.
Also in 1874, we seek the phrase put up your dukes in the records of London’s Old Bailey court in the trial of a William Onion, who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to month’s imprisonment:
JAMES HOLMES. I am manager of the Old Rose public-house, St. George's Street—on the night of 12th June the prisoner and deceased were there drinking together with a third man—they were quarrelling—I told them to go outside, which they did—I stood at the door to keep them from coming in—I saw the deceased strike the prisoner two or three times and want to fight him; they were not violent blows—the prisoner said if he gave him one blow that would be enough for him, and he hit him one blow under the nose on the lip; he fell and caught his head against the side of the kerb—I went in and saw no more—they had been drinking, but were not drunk.
Cross-examined by the Prisoner. The deceased had previously been quarrelling with another man—I did not hear you say “What is the use of two old pals quarrelling”—I did not hear you call for a pot of beer and say “You had better quarrel with that”—I would not serve you nor the other houses either—the deceased went on the top of the hill, and said “Come on, you are no man if you don't put up your dukes”—that was before you struck him—you were on the lower part—there are stones there sticking out of the ground—he took every advantage of you.
As with many slang terms, the exact origin is lost in the mists of time, but at least with this one, there is some evidence pointing to the Romany origin.
Sources:
Anglo-Norman Dictionary, 2007, s.v. duc, n.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, n.d., s.v. duke, n.3, dook, n.1.
Hotten, John Camden. The Slang Dictionary. London: Chatto and Windus, 1874, 153. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Matsell, George W. Vocabulum; or, the Rogue’s Lexicon. New York: 1859, 27, 28, 126. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s.v. duk, n.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. duke, n.
Plummer, Charles and John Earle. Two of the Saxon Chronicles, vol. 1 of 2 (1892). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952 (reprint), 260. HathiTrust Digital Archive. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 636, fols. 87r–v.
Swanton, Michael, trans. and ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1996). New York: Routledge, 1998, 260.
“William Onion. Killing; manslaughter. 13th July 1874.” The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, Reference # t18740713-478.
Image credit: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 636, fols. 87r–v. Public domain image as a mechanical reproduction of a public domain work.