hucklebuck

English

Etymology

The dance is perhaps from huckle (“hip”) + buck.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌkl.bʌk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

hucklebuck (plural hucklebucks)

1. A rhythmic dance from the time just prior to rock and roll.
   • 1948, Paul Williams, The hucklebuck, quoted in Talkin' that talk (1986), page 168
   • 1949, Roy Alfred (lyrics), Andy Gibson (music):

     It's the dance you should know, when the lights are down low, / Grab your baby, then go, do the hucklebuck, do the hucklebuck, / If you don't know how to do it, boy, you're out of luck, / Push your partner out, then you hunch your back, / Have a little movement in your sacroiliac, / Wiggle like a snake, wobble like a duck, / That's the way you do it when you do the hucklebuck.

   • 1995, John W. Roberts, From Hucklebuck to Hip Hop: Social Dance in the African-American Community, →ISBN:
2. (New Orleans) A treat consisting of frozen Kool-Aid served in a dixie cup.
   • 1988, Arthur Pfister, "My Name is New Orleans", re-printed in Arthur Pfister, My Name is New Orleans: 40 Years of Poetry & Other Jazz, Margaret Media, Inc. (2009) →ISBN, page 5:

     I am turtle soup, gator soup, tenderloin catfish, shrimp saute

     Shrimp Samantha, fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, peeled ice

     shrimp, Crabmeat au gratin, berled crab, stuffed crab, Shrimp

     Newberg, Shrimp etoufeé, Bananas Foster, Hubig’s Pies, Roman

     Candy, pralines, and hucklebucks. . .

   • 2005, Mona Lisa Saloy, Red Beans and Ricely Yours: Poems, Truman State University Press, →ISBN, page 91:

     So, we made soul food, hucklebucks,
     corn pone, and bread pudding,
     gumbo, and greyas.

   • 2011, Beverly Jacques Anderson, Cherished Memories: Snapshots of Life and Lessons from a 1950s New Orleans Creole Village, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 47:

     We waited for the Good Humor ice cream truck to get ice cream on a stick, huckle bucks, popsicles, or vanilla or chocolate ice cream in a small cup.

3. (slang, derogatory) A hillbilly or otherwise culturally backwards person.
   • 1996, Stephen J. Cannell, Final Victim, Avon Books, published 1997, →ISBN, page 107:

     […] I had a patrolman pull over a hot roller 'bout two hours ago. One a'them boys in the stolen car opened up on my man, who's in Atlanta General breathing through a tube and, according to the docs, ain't never gonna wake up. […] If they find those hucklebucks, I'm gonna have a hollow-point street dance on my hands, but in my spare time, what can I do to serve my Federal government?"

   • 2003 March 23, M1ahearn [username], “Re: NBC>>Ben Affleck is a MORON”, in rec.music.artists.springsteen‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Who? I'm guessing a country singer of some reknown - I have heard the name before but I have no idea what he said or sang. Anyway, I will admit that when a celebrity with conservative beliefs states his opinion the response is usually more restained,^[sic] but there's still a response. And a lot of it is of the "he should stick to singing to hucklebucks / he should stick to blowing stuff up in movies" type responses.

   • 2006 April 5, Jeff White, “Re: Darwin Answered His Own Evolution Questions”, in alt.religion.christian‎^[2] (Usenet):

     who cares if you did? does it say you're not sophisticated if you voted for a hucklebuck? maybe you have money in petroleum or halliburton.

Verb

hucklebuck (third-person singular simple present hucklebucks, present participle hucklebucking, simple past and past participle hucklebucked)

1. To dance the hucklebuck.
   • 1948, Paul Williams, "The Hucklebuck", quoted in Jean-Paul Levet, Talkin' That Talk, Soul Bag (1986), →ISBN, page 168:

     "We jumped* and boped*

     and stamped around the floor,

     we hucklebucked until my back is sore

     but honey, wont^[sic] you waltz with me once more*.

   • 1957, Herbert Simmons, Corner Boy, Houghton Mifflin, published 1957, page 58:

     The guys stood around the jukebox applejacking and hucklebucking to the music...

   • 1995, Wesley Brown, Tragic Magic, Ecco Press, →ISBN, page 37:

     […] Thanks to jazz my toes don't knock no more. I cold-turkeyed to Bird doin 'Now's the Time,' and hucklebucked out a the spell of heroin. […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:hucklebuck.
2. To move quickly, with quick movements and, often, going in circles.
   • 2005, Adam Mansbach, Angry Black White Boy: The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay, Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 151:

     Macon hucklebucked eleven flights rather than risk one elevator stare.

   • 2011, Jay Nelson, Cold Creek, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 646:

     It is only a game. I join the rhythmic clapping that always follows the fight song while the last of the players extracts himself from the stands and hucklebucks his way to join the milling, weight-shifting, pocketjammed team, […]

References

• Chuck Taggart, "A Lexicon of New Orleans Terminology and Speech"