First of May, Donnicker, and Other Circus Lingo

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Michelle in Valdosta, Georgia.

And I really enjoyed the show.

Thank you.

Hi.

I hope you don’t mind my having a potty mouth on National Public Radio.

The word I’d like you to investigate is doniker, which in circus lingo means a bathroom or any place it serves as such.

It’s been used for many, many years, going back who knows how long, and I have no idea where the word came from.

Michelle, what got you curious about the word doniker?

Well, it was a common word that we used every day.

I was a circus performer for over 20 years, and that was what it was in circus lingo.

I have to go to the doniker was a common expression.

There’s a lot of other words, too, but doniker seems to be the one that was used most often.

You were going to the doniker between doing what in a circus?

I was what they call generally useful.

I was actually on circuses, magic shows, and sideshows, and I have done everything.

Generally useful is if they need a pretty girl in an act, you’re it.

I’ve had my head cut off.

I hung 50 feet in the air doing aerial ballet, no net underneath me in Japan.

What else?

I was a clown.

I was a dancer.

I was a choreographer.

Just you name it, and I did it.

I started out as a juggler.

And rode elephants.

What else?

Oh, it handled snakes, of course.

Of course.

And I was Spidora.

I was Spidora, the spider lady.

I had eight big, very hairy legs.

And the funny thing about getting my head chopped off was my sister did an ancestry.

And it turns out we’re distant relatives of Marie Antoinette.

No.

So it was perfect.

I used to get guillotined eight times a day on the sideshow.

But it was a lot of fun.

I got to travel and made lots of good friends.

But you also used a doniker, or you called the restroom the doniker.

And now you’re adding word historian to all those other skills.

Well, that’s nice.

Yeah, I suppose so.

There are a lot of different spellings for this.

Let’s just get this down so everyone knows what we’re talking about.

Donnaker is often spelled D-O-N-I-C-K-E-R, or a double in in the middle.

Sometimes you’ll hear it as Donnigan, like the Irish name.

Sometimes Dunnigan or Dunnakin or lots and lots of different spellings.

But generally it’s believed to have come from two old, old words meaning dung house, D-U-N-G, house.

So it’s the place where you put your dung.

And as a matter of fact, the word dunny, which means privy or outhouse or toilet, and you’ll still sometimes hear it in Australia and New Zealand, dunny comes probably from the same origins as Donnigan.

Oh, okay.

Or Donnaker, yeah.

Well, that makes sense. All right.

So, yeah, Donnaker came from Dunnigan, and Dunnigan means dunghouse.

And there’s another word.

So, dung, the word dung, D-U-N-G, comes from that first part, the dung part.

They’re related to the same root.

And there was an old word, Donna, meaning human fecal matter.

And there was a term, the Donna drag.

That was the night soil man’s cart.

He was the fellow who would come around for the contents of your chamber pots.

Have you seen the second season of the television show Miracle Workers?

No.

Steve Buscemi plays a role on that where he is the night soil man.

Well, he comes around with this cart collecting the human waste.

Okay.

Well, that makes sense then because the word that goes along with Doniker is donication, and we all know what that is.

What’s a donication where you spend too long in the john on your phone?

That’s it.

Oh, Michelle.

But we’ve got a lot of different variations on this word back to the 1700s,

And it does show up in the language of circus and carnival workers as early as the 1930s,

Although no doubt it’s older because the lingo of circus and carnival workers is this kind of treasured lore

That was kept private for a long time until language historians and word historians really started to pay attention to it.

And it wasn’t well chronicled until the last 120 or 130 years or so.

Interesting.

Yeah, well, we’re using a fairly old word that has lots of history.

Oh, but you being a part of the circus family is a treasured tradition.

You are centuries and centuries of lore and folklore and superstition and tradition.

You’re just one in a long line of this stuff being passed from person to person.

So using Doniker is just one of many things and tales that you could probably tell us that you were a part of.

Definitely.

I started in the business as what they call a first of May, somebody brand new, in 1976.

A first of May.

So that’s the newbie, right?

Because in the old days, circuses used to go out on the first of May.

Oh, Grant and I are both scribbling madly.

So if you were new, you were a first of May.

I love it.

That’s wonderful.

Well, Michelle, it has been a delight to talk to you.

I do want you to call us any time you think of something else that you know that everyone would love to hear, okay?

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Nice talking to you.

You too.

Take care and be well.

I really appreciate knowing.

That’s great.

All right.

Yep.

Take care now.

Don’t count.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Michelle.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Cheers.

Bye-bye.

Well, we know that Michelle isn’t the only one with a rich linguistic history.

We know that.

So give us a call and tell us about yours, 877-929-9673,

Or send your stories about the slang from your corner of the world.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.