[Ads-l] geek HDAS def 3

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jan 23, 2016, at 8:46 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
> 
> "Geek" is a racial epithet?

Apparently it was, as an ablaut (or fronted and de-umlauted) variant of "gook".  

LH


> 
> 
>> On Jan 23, 2016, at 10:11 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> 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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