Hoe
/hoʊ/noun
A hoe is a long-handled tool with a blade used for digging, cultivating, or removing weeds; informally, the word can also be a derogatory shortening of “whore.”
Did you know?The gardening sense and the slang sense are historically distinct: the tool word is medieval and probably Germanic through French, while the slang form is a much later American English shortening of “whore.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic / early Germanic
Germanic
*hawwōn or related forms
“A reconstructed Germanic family associated with cutting or chopping tools; the exact ancestry of hoe is uncertain.”
Old High German
OHG
houwa
“A hoe or similar digging and cutting implement.”
Middle English
ME
howe / houe
“A hand tool for breaking or cultivating soil, borrowed through or influenced by Old French.”
15th Century
English
hoe
“A long-handled agricultural tool with a blade, used to dig and weed.”
20th Century
African American English / American English
hoe
“A clipped slang form of “whore,” used as a derogatory term for a sexually promiscuous woman.”
Modern English
English
hoe
“The standard name for the gardening tool, with a separate informal slang meaning inherited from “whore.””