Gook

For other uses, see Gook (disambiguation).

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 (1899–1913).[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.

  1. ^ "gook". Lexico US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021.
  2. ^ "Gook: The Short History of an Americanism". Monthly Review. March 1992. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014.
  3. ^ "gook". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  4. ^ Roediger, David. (March 1992). Archived 2014-10-30 at the Wayback Machine 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. ^ "Definition of GOOK". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  6. ^ "Gook Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  7. ^ "The Conquest of Haiti". The Nation. 10 July 1920.