honky

English edit

Alternative forms edit

honkey, honkie

Etymology edit

Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk.

English Wikipedia has an article on:

honky

Most likely from hunky (“Hungarian, Slav, eastern European; any white person”), an African-American vernacular shortening of Hungarian.^[1] Another possible etymon is Wolof xonq (“red, pink”), a term frequently used in African languages to describe white men.^[2]

As a term of racial abuse it was popularized by the Black Panther Party starting from 1967, who sought a rebuttal to nigger.

Pronunciation edit

Rhymes: -ɒŋki

Noun edit

honky (plural honkies)

(US, Canada, derogatory, ethnic slur) A white (Caucasian) person.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:white person
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:honky.
(US, obsolete) A factory hand or general unskilled worker.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

white person

Polish: białas (pl) m, białaska f

References edit

^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “honky”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/756/whats-the-origin-of-honky

[1] Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “honky”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

[2] ttp://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/756/whats-the-origin-of-honky

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