Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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first listed by:
slumry (6335 words)
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guys' names, by mouserie
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See also comments on Uncle Tom.
This comes from the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).
The term used to be (many years ago) "Uncle Tom," but seems to have been shortened to Tom. Some info about the book here. The book was so influential that several of the characters' names entered the public discourse as a shorthand or stereotype of a certain kind of person--e.g. Uncle Tom, Eva, Simon Legree...
I've no idea what WordNet is on about. In British slang tom means a female prostitute. Not in use in use in Australia.
Tom Dooley, Kingston Trio, #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958
Just Like Tom Thumb Blues by Bob Dylan
"Who keeps attributing all these puns to me?!" Tom said unknowingly...
the male of the species (well, some species)