Gook (???) (1912) -- Goo-goo

[Wilson Gray]

Thanks, Doug. So, "gook" rather coincides with "wog." In my youth,
Aussie friends applied the latter term to anyone who wasn't
sufficiently fair-skinned as to merit inclusion into the WASPocracy,
yet not so dark-skinned as to be considered a nigger. Hence, "wog"
was applied to Southern Europeans of all nationalities, Asians,
Indian Indians, etc., unless such a person's speech revealed him to
be an American. In that case, all bets were off.

-Wilson Gray

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>Subject:      Re: Gook (???) (1912) -- Goo-goo
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>
>>What about "gobble-de-gook"?
>
>At a glance this dates only from 1943. I think it may be unrelated to our
>nonspecific epithet "gook". [There is a similar word like "gobble-the-goo"
>in HDAS, related of course to fellatio, exact connection unclear (to me).]
>
>Note that "gook" (contrary to popular notions) is historically not at all
>restricted to East Asian types: it was applied to just about anybody
>'foreign', including WASPish New Zealanders.
>
>-- Doug Wilson