Fwd: A question

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Oct 04, 2001 at 11:49:20AM -0400, Sonja L. Lanehart wrote:
> I thought I'd pass this on in case anyone on the ADS list had a response.
>
> >X-Authentication-Warning: galileo.cc.rochester.edu: majord set
> >sender to owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu using -f
> >User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2106
> >Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 11:18:36 -0400
> >Subject: A question
> >From: Bambi Schieffelin <bs4 at nyu.edu>
> >To: <linganth at ats.rochester.edu>
> >Sender: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
> >Status:
> >
> >One of my students heard the following, and was wondering if any of it was
> >true - any ideas or is this a language myth?

It's an absolute myth. See HDAS, which has extensive examples
back to 1920 in reference to Haitians, Filipinos, Nicaraguans,
Italians, etc. It's probably from _goo-goo_ in the same sense,
from the 1890s (Philippines).

Jesse Sheidlower
OED


> >
> >Gook, a racial slur for Koreans comes from the Korean word for "America".
> >Supposedly, when the troops landed in Korean during the Korean war, they
> >heard local people saying "mee-gook" (America/USA) and assumed they were
> >speaking English.
> >
> >
> >Thanks - Bambi
>
>
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> Sonja L. Lanehart
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