Gook

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Gook (/ˈɡuːk/ or /ˈɡʊk/) is a derogatory term for people of East and Southeast Asian descent.[1] Its origin is unclear, but it may have originated among U.S. Marines during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902).[2][3] Historically, U.S. military personnel used the word "to refer to any dark-skinned foreigner, especially a non-European or non-American."[4][5][6] The earliest published example is dated 1920 and notes that U.S. Marines then in Haiti used the term to refer to Haitians.[7] It was widely used in Asia in both the Korean and Vietnamese Wars.

Etymology and history

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the origin of the word is unknown.[8] The earliest use of the word in the English language comes from the name of a traditional Cornish Bonnet.[9]

The earliest usage of gook as a slang term, was recorded in a slang dictionary published in 1893, defining it as "a low prostitute".[10]

The origin of gook as a racial slur, may have originated among U.S. Marines during the Philippine–American War (1899–1913), where the similar term goo-goo was also used to refer to Filipinos.[2][11] The Marines who occupied Nicaragua in 1912 took to calling the natives gooks.[citation needed] In 1920, it was reported that U.S. Marines in Haiti used the term to refer to Haitians.[7] Historically, U.S. military personnel used the word to refer to non-Americans of various ethnicities.[4]

During World War II, U.S. troops fighting on the Pacific Front occasionally referred to the natives of Pacific Islands as gooks. The term appears in the 1943 film Guadalcanal Diary, when one of the characters of the film refers to the titular setting as "gook island".[12]

The usage for Koreans possibly comes from the Korean word "국" (guk), meaning "country",[13] "한국" (hanguk), meaning "Korea", or "미국" (miguk), meaning "America".[14] U.S. soldiers in the Korean War might have heard locals saying miguk (미국), referring to Americans, and misinterpreted this as "Me gook."[15] Usage of the word was so prevalent during the first few months of the war that U.S. General Douglas MacArthur banned its use, for fear that Asians would become alienated to the United Nations Command because of the insult. In spite of MacArthur’s early prohibition, the term was nonetheless used by U.S. troops during the conflict, and U.S. postwar occupation troops in South Korea continued to call the Koreans "gooks".[16][2][17][18]

The term was also used by non-American troops during the Korean War as well. The posthumous Victoria Cross citation for British Army major Kenneth Muir, who was killed in action at the Battle of Hill 282, stated that his last words were "The Gooks will never drive the Argylls off this hill."[19]

In modern U.S. usage, "gook" refers particularly to communist soldiers during the Vietnam War and has also been used towards all Vietnamese and at other times to all Southeast Asians in general. It is considered to be highly offensive. In a highly publicized incident, Senator John McCain used the word during the 2000 presidential campaign to refer to his North Vietnamese captors when he was a prisoner of war: "I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live… I was referring to my prison guards and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend." A few days later, however, he apologized to the Vietnamese community at large.[20]

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."gook". Lexico US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Roediger, Dave (March 1992). "Gook: The Short History of an Americanism". Monthly Review. 43 (10): 50. doi:10.14452/MR-043-10-1992-03_5. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014.
  3. ^ Template:Dictionary.com
  4. ^ a b Roediger, David. (March 1992). Script error: No such module "webarchive". Gook: The Short History of an Americanism, Monthly Review. (Volume 43, Issue 10) “By the time of the Second World War, the identity of the gook expanded again. The West Coast's brilliant amateur student of language, Peter Tamony, took notes on radio commentator Deane Dickason's 1943 comments on gook—the Marines' "word for natives everwhere" but especially for Arabs. The latter of Dickason's conclusions is likely closer to the mark than the former. "Natives" of France, or of Britain, or of Holland, were not gooks, but people of color were……one San Francisco Examiner report from 1950 maintained that gook was "soldier's slang for almost any non-American," there is no available evidence that non-American whites in the United Nations force in Korea were so called.”
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of GOOK". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gook Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  7. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Seligmann, Herbert Jacob (10 July 1920). "The Conquest of Haiti". The Nation.
  8. ^ gook, Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 2001.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mayers, Lynne (2008). A Dangerous Place to Work! Women & Children of the Devon & Cornwall Mining Industries 1300 to 1970 (1st ed.). Cinderford: Blaize Bailey Books. pp. 10–17. ISBN 978-0-9556896-0-4.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Farmer, John S.; Henley, W. E. (1893). Slang and its Analogues, Past and Present. Vol. III - Fla. to Hyps. Printed for subscribers only. p. 181.
  11. ^ Template:Dictionary.com
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Tregaskis, Richard (2017-08-08). Eyewitness to World War II: Guadalcanal Diary, Invasion Diary, and John F. Kennedy and PT-109. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-5040-4753-1.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Cao, Lan; Novas, Himilce (1996). Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History. Plume. p. 250. ISBN 9780452273153. Gook, the American racial epithet for all Asian Americans, is actually the Korean word for 'country.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lee, Robert G. (1999). Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture. Temple University Press. A bastardization of the Korean "Hanguk" (Korean), or Miguk (American)"
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century. Praeger. 2003. p. 117. ISBN 9780275977146.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gook". Rhetoric of Race. 2003. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Soldiers revive "gook" as name for Korea reds". Los Angeles Times. 6 August 1950. p. 6. Template:ProQuest. Archived from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Use of Word "Gook" Is Opposed by MacArthur". The Kansas City Star. 12 September 1950.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 39115"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 5 January 1951. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."McCain Apologizes for 'Gook' Comment". Asiaweek. 24 February 2000. Archived from the original on November 2, 2000.

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