gook

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An offensive slur for an Asian person.

   The word is a deeply offensive racial slur and should never be used.

2. 2
   noun

   Thick, sticky, unpleasant matter.

   There was some sticky gook all over the kitchen floor.

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…

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