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

[Jonathan Lighter]

The near global application of "gook" was full-blown by 1945 among overseas service personnel in the Pacific, Africa, and Southern Europe. Basically it meant "native." Since the Vietnam War this broad sense seems to have declined in favor.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Gook (???) (1912) -- Goo-goo
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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
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
>Subject: Re: Gook (???) (1912) -- Goo-goo
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>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


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