What Is Cotton Eye?

Cotton-eyed is a term from the early South.

Cotton-eyed, as heard in the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe," sung as a folk tune and made more recently popular by the band Rednex, is an early term originating in the Deep South. The meaning remains unclear, but theories about the term make it as diverse as a term for lovesickness or a euphemism for symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease.

Love Sick

According to Phantom Ranch, a Western-life and folk dance website, cotton-eyed is a term referring to the soft look a lovesick guy gets when he takes a "cotton to" another man's date.

STD

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, the term also has been traced to the symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease and the appearance at the end of a man's penis when he has contracted gonorrhea.

Bug-Eyed

A third theory is that cotton-eyed is another term for "bug-eyed," where the eyes look perpetually startled, showing an inordinate amount of white around the cornea, notes The Media Desk website. The look was a stereotype for blacks in Vaudeville, the website reports.

References

• Phantom Ranch: Cotton-Eyed Joe
• The Media Desk: Cotton Eyed Joe