Dildo, Newfoundland and Labrador
Encyclopedia
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is located on the southeastern Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
Trinity Bay is a large bay on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Major fishing communities include Trinity and Heart's Content.-Industry:...
about 60 kilometres west of St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
. South Dildo is a neighbouring unincorporated community. The town's unusual name has brought it a certain amount of notoriety in the same vein as Fucking, Austria
Fucking, Austria
Fucking is an Austrian village in the municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria. The village is north of Salzburg, east of the German border....
; Anus, France
Anus, France
Anus is a populated place in Burgundy, France, within the commune of Fouronnes.Anus was anciently parished with Fouronnes, the parish sometimes being called Fouronne et Anus. In 1848, the two together had seventy households, of which nineteen were at Anus. In the 16th century, Anus had its own...
; Nob End, England
Nob End
Nob End is the site of a former waste tip, and now a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Kearsley, Bolton, England.Standing at the confluence of the River Irwell and River Croal it was used around 1850-70 as a tip for alkaline waste from the production of sodium carbonate by the Leblanc...
; Twatt, Scotland
Twatt, Orkney
Twatt is a small settlement on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It was previously the location of a RNAS airfield, HMS Tern, 1940–1949.-Etymology:The settlement name originates from the Old Norse þveit, meaning 'small parcel of land'...
and Wankum, Germany
Wankum
Wankum is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, GermanyThe town's location, near the A40 autobahn close to the border with The Netherlands, is infamous with British motorists who pass the sign to the Wankum exit shortly after entering Germany and view the name with amusement due to its two syllables...
.
Name
The place name "Dildo" is attested in this area since at least 1711, though how this came to be is unknown. The origin of the word "dildoDildo
A dildo is a sex toy, often explicitly phallic in appearance, intended for bodily penetration during masturbation or sex with partners.- Description and uses :...
" itself is obscure; it was used as early as the 16th century for a cylindrical object such as a dildo glass (test tube
Test tube
A test tube, also known as a culture tube or sample tube, is a common piece of laboratory glassware consisting of a finger-like length of glass or clear plastic tubing, open at the top, usually with a rounded U-shaped bottom....
), for a phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
-shaped sex toy, as an insult for a "contemptuous or reviling" male, and as a refrain in ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s. The name, then written as "Dildoe", was first applied to Dildo Island
Dildo Island
Dildo Island is an island in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the largest of three islands located at the entrance to Dildo Arm in the bottom of Trinity Bay, off the coast of the neighboring town of Dildo....
, located offshore from the present-day town of Dildo. This use was recorded in 1711 and 1775, and the name was thereafter applied to the Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
Trinity Bay is a large bay on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Major fishing communities include Trinity and Heart's Content.-Industry:...
and other local physical features. Social scientist William Baillie Hamilton notes that Captain James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
and his assistant Michael Lane, who mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, often displayed a sense of humour in the place names they chose, and were not above selecting names that might offend overly sensitive readers. Regardless of the origin, the name has brought the town of Dildo a measure of notoriety that is not welcomed on all fronts. In the 20th century there were several campaigns to change the name, though all failed, because the people of Dildo have decided they would like to keep the name.
History
The Dildo area has a long history, going as far back as 2000 BC when Maritime ArchaicMaritime Archaic
The Maritime Archaic is a North American cultural complex of the Late Archaic along the coast of Newfoundland, the Canadian Martimes and northern New England. The Maritime Archaic began in approximately 7000 BC and lasted into the 18th century. The culture consisted of sea-mammal hunters in the...
aboriginal people
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
resided at Anderson's Cove. By 700 AD, people of the Dorset culture
Dorset culture
The Dorset culture was a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. It has been defined as having four phases, with distinct technology related to the people's hunting and tool making...
inhabited Dildo Island
Dildo Island
Dildo Island is an island in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the largest of three islands located at the entrance to Dildo Arm in the bottom of Trinity Bay, off the coast of the neighboring town of Dildo....
. In 1613, Henry Crout
Henry Crout
Henry Crout settler, explorer was most likely from Devon in the English West Country. He became an investor in the London and Bristol Company and acted as Sir Percival Willoughby agent and guardian to his son Thomas at the Cuper's Cove plantation in Newfoundland.Crout was impressed with...
, whilst sailing up Dildo Arm, came in contact with the Beothuk
Beothuk
The Beothuk were one of the aboriginal peoples in Canada. They lived on the island of Newfoundland at the time of European contact in the 15th and 16th centuries...
s, who were residing on Dildo Island at this time. He traded with them and left gifts. In 1711 the inhabitants of Trinity Bay
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
Trinity Bay is a large bay on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Major fishing communities include Trinity and Heart's Content.-Industry:...
were ordered by Governor Crow to leave their homes during the winter, to defend themselves against the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
who burned their houses. Dildo Island was one of the places designated for this purpose. The town of Dildo was founded in the late 18th century and settled to exploit the abundance of marine resources such as fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
(mostly cod), whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s and seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
s.