Entry · catalog no. 1089
juke joint
/ /dʒuːk dʒɔɪnt/ /JOOK joynt
noun · Deep South · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
A rough, informal place — often at a crossroads or on the edge of a work camp — where Black Southerners gathered to dance, drink, gamble, and hear live blues. The cradle of much American popular music.
“Saturday night the whole quarter emptied into the juke joint down the road.”
Origin & Attribution
Emerged across the Deep South after Emancipation, when formal venues were closed to Black people by segregation. "Jook" traces to the Gullah word joog, disorderly, from West African roots. Zora Neale Hurston gave the first serious account in print in 1934, calling the jook "the most important place in America" musically.
late 1800s
Jooks arise across the post-Emancipation South
1934
Hurston documents the jook in 'Characteristics of Negro Expression'
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Deep South · 1930s
Spoken by
Black Southerners; blues culture
$JUKEJOThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded92 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
85/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1934
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Zora Neale Hurston, 'Characteristics of Negro Expression' — 1934
essay · documented
■
+ Cite a sourceMississippi Encyclopedia, 'Juke Joints'
reference
See also