Meaning

noun (ethnic slur) offensive and derogatory name for a Black man who is abjectly servile and deferential to Whites

noun male cat

noun male turkey

originPossibly onomatopoeia, conflated with the given name, given the practice of giving objects such as Big Ben human names. Alternatively, it may derive from an inscription on the old bell used as metal to make the Great Tom of Oxford in 1680: In Thomæ laude resono bim bom sine fraude.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0