Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore", as in the current day "ho"?
For example, is it probable that Joyce intended the (additional) modern day pun in the following line [Finnegans Wake p.g. 5.9]?
Hootch is for husbandman handling his hoe.
In Ulysses standalone "ho" appears 29 times, of which 24 occur in Circes, but all appear to be standard usages. "hoe" appears but once. This excludes portmanteau usages such as "hother’s". The prevalence of "ho" in Circes (a chapter of whores) suggests Joyce may have been onto this association. Perhaps for censorship reason? Does any Ulysses buff know more about this? Here are a few example.
MARION: Let him look, the pishogue! Pimp! And scourge himself! I’ll write to a powerful prostitute or Bartholomona, the bearded woman, to raise weals out on him an inch thick and make him bring me back a signed and stamped receipt.
BOYLAN: (Clasps himself.) Here, I can’t hold this little lot much longer. (He strides off on stiff cavalry legs.)
BELLA: (Laughing.) Ho ho ho ho.
and
THE CROPPY BOY: Horhot ho hray hor hother’s hest.
and my favourite, if the pun holds,
(Private Carr and Private Compton turn and counterretort, their tunics bloodbright in a lampglow, black sockets of caps on their blond cropped polls. Stephen Dedalus and Lynch pass through the crowd close to the redcoats.)
PRIVATE COMPTON: (Jerks his finger.) Way for the parson.
PRIVATE CARR: (Turns and calls.) What ho, parson!
Since this sound form is so prevalent in Finnegans Wake it would be important to know if Joyce is using this association or not.
I have searched Google Books and can find no contemporaneous usage (the 1930s or before), so suspect perhaps not. I have also search some of James's love letters to Nora, and while "whore" indeed appears, "ho/hoe" does not. I could not find it in Shakespeare either.
- Has anyone commented on this before in the literature?
- Does such a usage appear in any of Joyce's earlier works?
- Do any such usages appear anywhere before the 1930s?
- Is this the sound form for whore in any other language?
Note the the sound form "hoer" from the Dutch is different to "hoe". Finnegans Wake is riddled with foreign words, especially (but not inclusively) from the Germanic, Scandinavian, Greek and Latin languages, so all such variants of "whore" appear in the text. All those close to "whore" end in an "r" of some sort, while "ho/hoe" does not.
I have found an example [p.g. 20.35] in Finnegans Wake that suggests he was very close to making the leap, where ann is the "whore" river-wife [think Molly] of the aforementioned husband manhandling his hoe.
Flou inn, flow ann. Hohore!
Research reveals to "ho" gained popularity in the 60s, which is 30 years too late.
- Demonstrating that Joyce was onto "ho"-"whore" in the Circe chapter of Ulysses, would, of course, completely answer this question, and I would absolutely accept such an answer without it have any discussion of Finnegans Wake.
- I have accepted Laurel's answer, thereby ensuring full bounty award, since (1) that answer is as correct as we know at this date, and (2) I required a line drawn in the sand.
- I have opened (and cross-referenced) a related question Where in Ireland, if anywhere, at the time of James Joyce, would “hoe” and “whore” sound similar enough to pun? on our sister site English Language & Usage