Gook (???) (1912)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Am still mystified.  Earliest HDAS sense (simpleton) is from college use around this period. I wonder if this "gook" was some kind of imaginary creature from a comic strip or something (cf. career of "jeep").

Of course its existence could have influenced the racial sense of "gook" (ultimately from "googoo").  Anything on "goog," an intermediate spelling?

Re "dinosourus."  Walter Cronkite always says "dinosour."   This is evidence for the pronunciations antiquity.  (Though come to think of it, so is Cronkite.)

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: Gook (???) (1912)
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>From N'archive:

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_Evening Post_ (Frederick MD), 22 May 1912: p. 4:

<<

[title] Long Ago.

The pterodactyls flew about,
The dodoes used to sing;
And the aepornis [sic: "aepyornis" --DW] wandered out
In prehistoric spring.

The dinosourus [sic] built its nest,
The gooks were on the wing;
And behemoths were quite a pest
In prehistoric spring.

Oh, mankind hasn't changed its ways,
To habits old we cling.
The bards sang these same roundelays
In prehistoric spring.

>>

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The other creatures named here have recognizable names. But what is the "gook"?

-- Doug Wilson


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