View source for Gook

{{Short description|Ethnic slur against East and Southeast Asians}}
{{other uses}}
'''Gook''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|uː|k}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ʊ|k}}) is a derogatory term for people of <!--Term is specifically for these regions per source.-->East and Southeast [[Asian people|Asian]] descent.<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gook |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211219155704/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/gook |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 19, 2021 |title=gook |dictionary=[[Lexico]] US English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> Its origin is unclear, but it may have originated among U.S. Marines during the [[Philippine–American War]] (1899–1902).<ref name="roegook">{{cite journal |last=Roediger |first=Dave |author-link=David Roediger |date=March 1992 |title=Gook: The Short History of an Americanism |url=https://monthlyreviewarchives.org/index.php/mr/article/view/MR-043-10-1992-03_5 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030111334/http://www.davidroediger.org/articles/gook-the-short-history-of-americanism.html |archivedate=October 30, 2014 |journal=[[Monthly Review]] |volume=43 |issue=10 |page=50 |doi=10.14452/MR-043-10-1992-03_5}}</ref><ref>{{Dictionary.com|gook|accessdate=2021-12-19}}</ref> Historically, U.S. military personnel used the word "to refer to any dark-skinned foreigner, especially a non-European or non-American."<ref name="das">[http://www.davidroediger.org/articles/gook-the-short-history-of-americanism.html Roediger, David. (March 1992).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030111334/http://www.davidroediger.org/articles/gook-the-short-history-of-americanism.html |date=2014-10-30 }}

[http://www.davidroediger.org/articles/gook-the-short-history-of-americanism.html ''Gook: The Short History of an Americanism, Monthly Review. (Volume 43, Issue 10)''] 

[http://www.davidroediger.org/articles/gook-the-short-history-of-americanism.html “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.”] </ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of GOOK |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gook |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gook Definition & Meaning |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/gook |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> The earliest published example is dated 1920 and notes that U.S. Marines then [[American occupation of Haiti|in Haiti]] used the term to refer to [[Haitians]].<ref name="natgoo">{{cite journal |last=Seligmann |first=Herbert Jacob |author-link=Herbert J. Seligmann |date=10 July 1920 |title=The Conquest of Haiti |url=http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Independent_Media/Conquest_Haiti_SNM.html |journal=[[The Nation]]}}</ref> It was widely used in Asia in both the [[Korean War|Korean]] and [[Vietnamese War]]s.

== Etymology ==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' states that the origin of the word is unknown.<ref name="OED">'''gook''', ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Second Edition, 2001.</ref> An earlier usage of ''gook'', recorded in a slang dictionary published in 1893, defined ''gook'' as "a low prostitute".<ref name=farmer>{{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=John S. |last2=Henley |first2=W. E. |url=https://archive.org/stream/slangitsanalogue03farmuoft#page/181/mode/1up |title=Slang and its Analogues, Past and Present |publisher=Printed for subscribers only |date=1893 |volume=III - Fla. to Hyps. |page=181}}</ref>

The earliest use of the word in the English language comes from the name of a traditional [[Cornwall|Cornish]] [[Gook (headgear)|Bonnet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayers |first=Lynne |title=A Dangerous Place to Work! Women & Children of the Devon & Cornwall Mining Industries 1300 to 1970 |publisher=Blaize Bailey Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-9556896-0-4 |edition=1st |location=Cinderford |pages=10–17 |language=en}}</ref>

The usage for Koreans possibly comes from the [[Korean language|Korean]] word "국" (''guk''), meaning "country",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cao |first1=Lan |last2=Novas |first2=Himilce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1tskNgsz3wC&q=gook |title=Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History |publisher=[[Plume (publisher)|Plume]] |date=1996 |page=250 |isbn=9780452273153 |quote=Gook, the American racial epithet for all Asian Americans, is actually the Korean word for 'country.}}</ref> "한국" (''hanguk''), meaning "Korea", or "미국" (''miguk''), meaning "America".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Robert G. |title=Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture |publisher=[[Temple University Press]] |date=1999 |quote=A bastardization of the Korean "Hanguk" (Korean), or Miguk (American)"}}</ref> U.S. soldiers in the Korean War might have heard locals saying ''miguk'' (미국), referring to Americans, and misinterpreted this as "Me gook."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcf_4T-nPuoC&pg=PA118 |title=Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] |page=117 |date=2003|isbn=9780275977146 }}</ref>

==Historical use==
The origin of gook is unclear, but it 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.<ref name=roegook/><ref>{{Dictionary.com|gook|accessdate=2021-12-19}}</ref> The Marines who occupied [[Nicaragua]] in 1912 took to calling the natives gooks. In 1920, it was reported that U.S. Marines in Haiti used the term to refer to [[Haitians]].<ref name="natgoo" /> Historically, U.S. military personnel used the word to refer to non-Americans of various ethnicities.<ref name=das/>

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 (film)|Guadalcanal Diary]]'', when one of the characters of the film refers to the titular setting as "gook island".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tregaskis |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTotDwAAQBAJ&dq=guadalcanal+diary+gook+island&pg=PT100 |title=Eyewitness to World War II: Guadalcanal Diary, Invasion Diary, and John F. Kennedy and PT-109 |date=2017-08-08 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-5040-4753-1 |language=en}}</ref>

When U.S. troops were stationed on the [[Korean Peninsula]] at the outbreak of the [[Korean War]], so prevalent was the use of the word gook 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".<ref name="pearson">{{cite web|url=http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/gook.htm |title=Gook |work=Rhetoric of Race |date=2003 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224090837/http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/gook.htm |archivedate=February 24, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="roegook" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/166121693 |title=Soldiers revive "gook" as name for Korea reds |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=6 August 1950 |page=6 |access-date=6 July 2017 |archive-date=26 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826031400/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/166121693.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Aug+6%2C+1950&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%281923-Current+File%29&edition=&startpage=&desc=SOLDIERS+REVIVE+%27GOOK%27+AS+NAME+FOR+KOREA+REDS |id={{ProQuest|166121693}} |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kanmac">{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/56230634/ |title=Use of Word "Gook" Is Opposed by MacArthur |work=[[The Kansas City Star]] |date=12 September 1950}}</ref> 

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 (British Army officer)|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 [[Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders|Argylls]] off this hill."<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39115 |date=5 January 1951 |pages=133–134 |supp=y|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39115/supplement/133}}</ref> 

In modern U.S. usage, "gook" refers particularly to [[Communism|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 [[John McCain 2000 presidential campaign|2000 presidential campaign]] to refer to his [[North Vietnam|North Vietnamese]] captors when he was a [[John McCain#Prisoner of war|prisoner of war]]: "I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live… I was referring to my [[prison guard]]s 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.<ref name=awapol>{{cite web|url=http://www.asianweek.com/2000_02_24/feature_mccainapology.html |title=McCain Apologizes for 'Gook' Comment |work=[[Asiaweek]] |date=24 February 2000 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20001102101856/http://www.asianweek.com/2000_02_24/feature_mccainapology.html |archivedate=November 2, 2000 }}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* {{wiktionary inline}}

{{Ethnic slurs}}

[[Category:Anti-Vietnamese sentiment]]
[[Category:Anti-Chinese sentiment]]
[[Category:Anti-Japanese sentiment]]
[[Category:Anti-Korean sentiment]]
[[Category:Asian-American issues]]
[[Category:Anti–East Asian slurs]]
[[Category:English words]]
[[Category:Anti-Filipino sentiment]]
[[Category:Anti-Mongolian sentiment]]
[[Category:Ethnic and religious slurs]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for strangers and foreigners]]