gook
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: First attested in the 1890s, US military slang in reference to Filipinos (in particular, it is defined in an 1893 citation in Slang and Its Analogues as referring to prostitutes who followed army camps; it is defined similarly in a 1914 work). The word was used for Nicaraguans during the US military occupation there in the 1910s, and for Haitians during the US invasion there, when Herbert Seligman noted in 1920 that "The Haitians … are nicknamed 'Gooks'".
Other early uses in the 1920 and 30s still refer to people from the Philippines (a 1921 work refers to the Philippines as "Gook Land"), and the term also resembles goo-goo (“a Filipino person”), for which a variety of etymologies have been proposed; see that entry for more. (A later folk etymology suggests that during the Korean War, North Korean soldiers would shout Korean 美國 (Miguk, “America”) at Americans, who interpreted it as "me gook", as if identifying themselves as "gooks"; this ignores the many earlier examples of the word outside Korea.) Gook was used of Pacific Islanders by World War II, and Koreans and Vietnamese people by the time of the 1950s and 60s US military interventions there, which cemented the shift to meaning "Asian".
Inflected forms:
form: gooks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: gooks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: gooking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: gooked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: gooked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A person of (South) East Asian descent (originally revolutionaries of the Katipunan then generally to any native of the Philippines, after the enemy and collaborators hid amongst them), but now especially:
pos: noun
tags: US
derogatory
ethnic
offensive
slang
slur
vulgar
examples: A few days later he had a 'damned good party' at NORMASH, drinking brandy, and he then 'beat up a Gook [Korean] village.' This resulted in an 'awful hangover all day', […] Later, he walked back to his unit, alone at three o'clock in the morning, having 'swiped a Gook torch.'
gloss: A person of (South) East Asian descent (originally revolutionaries of the Katipunan then generally to any native of the Philippines, after the enemy and collaborators hid amongst them), but now especially:
pos: noun
tags: US
derogatory
ethnic
offensive
slang
slur
vulgar
examples: Of course, I've got so many confirmed kills I lost count. Nobody believes me because the gooks drag off their dead.
gloss: A foreigner (to the speaker), especially the (enemy) natives of a place the speaker's military is at war with or in.
pos: noun
tags: dated
derogatory
examples: "Haiti is a country with a history, […]" "but how about the Marines, and the gendarmerie; aren't they on the job?" […] "You know darn well a civilian can't get away with handling a gook like a Marine can; […]"
In scenes [in Flight, 1929] based on the Marines' slaughter of several hundred Nicaraguan rebels at the Battle of Ocotal in July 1927, the two heroes, who are rivals for the hand of a vivacious nurse (Lila Lee), repeatedly attack the "gooks" in support of their comrades on the ground.
gloss: A foreigner (to the speaker), especially the (enemy) natives of a place the speaker's military is at war with or in.
pos: noun
tags: Rhodesia
dated
derogatory
examples: "But shit, man, don't we do a fucking good job of it. Jesus, we slew long gooks this last trip," quipped Mark.
gloss: Synonym of look.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
childish
Derived words: gookland
gooky
Translations:
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 小黃人 /小黄人
roman: xiǎohuángrén
lang: Dutch
word: spleetoog
lang: Esperanto
word: azianaĉo
lang: Estonian
word: pilusilm
lang: Estonian
word: plöga
lang: Finnish
word: vinosilmä
lang: French
word: bridé
lang: French
word: bridée
lang: German
word: Schlitzauge
lang: Greek
word: σχιστομάτης
roman: schistomátis
lang: Italian
word: muso giallo
lang: Italian
word: occhi a mandorla
lang: Japanese
word: ゴキブリ
roman: gokiburi
lang: Japanese
word: チョン
lang: Polish
word: żółtek
lang: Russian
word: узкогла́зый
roman: uzkoglázyj
lang: Russian
word: косоры́лый
roman: kosorýlyj
lang: Russian
word: китаёза
roman: kitajóza
lang: Russian
word: япо́шка
roman: japóška
lang: Swedish
word: guling
lang: Turkish
word: çekik gözlü