| an establishment where one can eat, drink, and, usually, dance to music provided by a jukebox. |
juke 1 also jook  (jōōk, jŏŏk)  n. A roadside or rural establishment offering liquor, dancing, and often gambling and prostitution. Also called juke house, juke joint. intr.v. juked also jooked, juk·ing also jook·ing, jukes also jooks
[Probably from Gullah juke, joog, disorderly, wicked, of West African origin; akin to Wolof dzug, to live wickedly, and Bambara dzugu, wicked.] Gullah, the English-based Creole language spoken by people of African ancestry off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, retains a number of words from the West African languages brought over by slaves. One such word is juke, "bad, wicked, disorderly," the probable source of the English word juke. Used originally in Florida and then chiefly in the Southeastern states, juke (also appearing in the compound juke joint) was an African-American word meaning a roadside drinking establishment that offers cheap drinks, food, and music for dancing and often doubles as a brothel. "To juke" is to dance, particularly at a juke joint or to the music of a jukebox whose name, no longer regional and having lost the connotation of sleaziness, contains the same word. |
