Cotton-eyed Joe; an unanswerable question? I checked my books on American slang and came up dry. On google, I found that a library director, Univ. Texas asked this question on a chat line of Rice Univ. (dillo@listserv.rice.edu) and received no reply. I found a version where cotton-eyed Joe is a horse. Cotton-eyed Joe you mean outlaw/ Worst durn hoss I ever saw/ Hold my fiddle and hold my bow/ I'm gonna dance that Cotton-eyed Joe. The piece is a traditional fiddle tune and has as many versions as there are performers. Another interesting word is the verb cotton- I don't cotton to her, etc. Perhaps from a Welsh word meaning like or care for.