Gook
Encyclopedia
Gook ˈɡʊk is a derogatory term for East Asians which came to prominence in reference to enemy soldiers. U.S. Marines
serving in the Philippines
in the early 20th century used the word to refer to Filipinos. The term continued to be used by American soldiers stationed around the world to refer to non-Americans. It acquired its current status as a racial slur at the time of the Vietnam War
(1959–1975).
." By using the word to refer to Filipinos, the Marines may have been expressing contempt for native women and accusing them of promiscuity. Early usage may have been influenced by the word "goo goo" or "gugu," also applied to Filipinos by the Marines. "Gugu" originated as a mocking imitation of Filipino speech (cf. barbarian
). "The Marines who occupied Nicaragua in 1912 took to calling the natives gooks, one of their names for Filipinos," according to H. L. Mencken
. Marines serving in Haiti
in 1915 to 1920 used the term to refer to Haitians.
In Frank Capra
's Flight (1929), the word was used by a U.S. Marine stationed in Nicaragua
. It was later used in the Korean War
movie The Steel Helmet
(1951)For another pre-Vietnam Korean reference, see The Hook (1963). as well as in numerous movies and books depicting the Vietnam War.These movies include Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket
(1987), Hamburger Hill
(1987), Good Morning Vietnam
(1988), and Strawberry Fields (1997). See also the novel Word of Honor (1985) by Nelson DeMille
, p. 590.
A folk etymology suggests that "gook" refers to the Korean
word "국" (國) meaning "country." According to one explanation, American soldiers during the Korean War
were often confronted by Korean soldiers and civilians and would hear them say, "미국" [miɡuk] meaning "America." (For a derivation, see 美國.) The American soldiers supposedly interpreted this expression as "Me gook?", meaning "am I a gook?" in broken English
In the U.S., "gook" refers most particularly to Communist
soldiers in the context of the Vietnam War
. It is generally considered highly offensive. In a highly publicized incident, Senator John McCain
used the word to refer to his former captors, then apologized to the Vietnamese community at large. "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."
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
serving in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in the early 20th century used the word to refer to Filipinos. The term continued to be used by American soldiers stationed around the world to refer to non-Americans. It acquired its current status as a racial slur at the time of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
(1959–1975).
Origin and development
A slang dictionary published in 1893 defined "gook" as "a low prostituteProstitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
." By using the word to refer to Filipinos, the Marines may have been expressing contempt for native women and accusing them of promiscuity. Early usage may have been influenced by the word "goo goo" or "gugu," also applied to Filipinos by the Marines. "Gugu" originated as a mocking imitation of Filipino speech (cf. barbarian
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
). "The Marines who occupied Nicaragua in 1912 took to calling the natives gooks, one of their names for Filipinos," according to H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
. Marines serving in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in 1915 to 1920 used the term to refer to Haitians.
In Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's Flight (1929), the word was used by a U.S. Marine stationed in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. It was later used in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
movie The Steel Helmet
The Steel Helmet
The Steel Helmet is a war film directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Lippert Studios during the Korean War. It was the first film about the war, and the first of several war films by producer-director-writer Fuller.-Plot:...
(1951)For another pre-Vietnam Korean reference, see The Hook (1963). as well as in numerous movies and books depicting the Vietnam War.These movies include Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
(1987), Hamburger Hill
Hamburger Hill
Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American war film about the actual assault of the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division 'Screaming Eagles', on a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army on Ap Bia...
(1987), Good Morning Vietnam
Good Morning, Vietnam
Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 American comedy-drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Service , who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call...
(1988), and Strawberry Fields (1997). See also the novel Word of Honor (1985) by Nelson DeMille
Nelson DeMille
Nelson Richard DeMille is an American author of thriller novels. His works include Word of Honor , The Charm School, The Gold Coast, Plum Island, and The General's Daughter .DeMille has also written under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt...
, p. 590.
A folk etymology suggests that "gook" refers to the Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
word "국" (國) meaning "country." According to one explanation, American soldiers during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
were often confronted by Korean soldiers and civilians and would hear them say, "미국" [miɡuk] meaning "America." (For a derivation, see 美國.) The American soldiers supposedly interpreted this expression as "Me gook?", meaning "am I a gook?" in broken English
Broken English
Broken English is a 1979 album by singer Marianne Faithfull. It is often cited as Faithfull's definitive recording; Faithfull herself describes it in her autobiography as "the masterpiece"...
In the U.S., "gook" refers most particularly to Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
soldiers in the context of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. It is generally considered highly offensive. In a highly publicized incident, Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
used the word to refer to his former captors, then apologized to the Vietnamese community at large. "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."
Citations
- 1893 Slang and its Analogues, GOOK, subs. (American). A low prostitute. For synonyms, see BARRACK HACK and TART.
- 1920 The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, The Haitians in whose service United States marines are presumably restoring peace and order in Haiti are nicknamed "Gooks"...
- 1923 Le Slang, gook, a tramp: low:
- 1935 American Speech, Gook, anyone who speaks Spanish, particularly a Filipino. [Note: This incorrectly assumes that Filipinos speak Spanish.]
- 1945 The American LanguageThe American LanguageThe American Language, first published in 1919, is H. L. Mencken's book about the English language as spoken in the United States.Mencken was inspired by "the argot of the colored waiters" in Washington, as well as one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of...
, The Marines who occupied Nicaragua in 1912 took to calling the natives gooks, one of their names for Filipinos.
- 1947 New York Herald TribuneNew York Herald TribuneThe New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
(2 Apr.), The American troops...don’t like the Koreans – whom they prefer to call ‘Gooks’ – and, in the main, they don’t like Korea.
- 1950 Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
(Aug. 6, 1950) "Soldiers revive "gook" as name for Korea reds" (headline)
- 1951 The Steel HelmetThe Steel HelmetThe Steel Helmet is a war film directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Lippert Studios during the Korean War. It was the first film about the war, and the first of several war films by producer-director-writer Fuller.-Plot:...
(movie), Sergeant Zack: You talk more like a dog face than a gook. Short Round: I am no gook. I am Korean!
- 1960 Dictionary of American Slang, gook Generically, a native of the Pacific islands, Africa, Japan, China, Korea or any European country except England; usually a brown-skinned or Oriental non-Christian.
- 1967 Doobie Doo, A gook in the purest sense is anybody what ain’t American.
- 1971 All in the FamilyAll in the FamilyAll in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, Archie BunkerArchie BunkerArchibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
denies he refers to Laotians, Cambodians, etc. as "Chinks". Edith BunkerEdith BunkerEdith Bunker is a fictional 1970s sitcom character on All in the Family , played by Jean Stapleton. She was the wife of Archie Bunker , mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathead" Stivic, and, after 1975, grandmother of Joey Stivic...
: "No, he calls them 'gooks'."
- 1968 The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(23 Feb.), The Gooks [ Vietcong ] hit from bunkers and the Marines had to carry half the company back.
- 1979 M*A*S*H (TV show), "Go ahead, shut me up so I won't tell anybody how you save your gook friends!"
- 1981 With the Old BreedWith the old breedWith the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is a World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, a United States Marine. Since its first publication in 1981, With the Old Breed has been recognized as one of the best first-hand accounts of combat in the Pacific during World War II...
(World War II memoir), "There's an old gook woman in there that's been hit in the side real bad."
- 1987 Full Metal JacketFull Metal JacketFull Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
(movie), "We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out."
- 1994 Pulp Fiction (film)Pulp Fiction (film)Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
, Used multiple times to refer to the Viet Cong in the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
- 2000 John McCainJohn McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
refer to his Vietnamese wartimeVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
experience, “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.”
- 2004 Team America: World PoliceTeam America: World PoliceTeam America: World Police, often referred to as simply Team America, is a 2004 action comedy film written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady and directed by Parker, all of whom are also known for the popular animated television series South Park...
(movie), "I was so sure the ultimate terrorist was Middle Eastern, but I didn't realize he was a goddamn Gook. I'll never be a racist again."