honky
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk.
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
- Rhymes: -ɒŋki
Noun
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
Translations
See also
- honky tonk (etymologically unrelated)
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “honky”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/756/whats-the-origin-of-honky