[Ads-l] geek HDAS def 3

[Neal Whitman]

"Geek" is a racial epithet?


> On Jan 23, 2016, at 10:11 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      geek HDAS def 3
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> HDAS I affords two exx. of this synonym for "gook," the earliest from 1963
> 
> Here's another from 1963, referring to World War II:
> 
> 1963 Bernard Gordon _Cry of Battle_ (film):  "Just a pack of geeks." "There
> are no 'geeks' here. Just Filipinos. They want to be treated as equals
> because that's what they are."
> 
> The film is based on a novel, _A Time of Fortune_, by Benjamin Appel
> (Morrow, 1963). No GB snippets confirm that  "geek" is therein, but one
> would expect so.
> 
> Note that both "geek" and "gook" were established slang terms for odd or
> crazy people before they became racial epithets.
> 
> 
> JL
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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