Honkies & hicks & hillbillies & gringos

Posted by ESC on July 14, 2000

In Reply to: Rednecks, poor whites & crackers posted by Frankie on July 13, 2000

: : +: Since we're on the subject, ethnic groups have always had derogatory (for insult only)"pet names" thoughout history. I remember (about 100 threads back) a discussion about the origin of gringo which I beleive meant "a Greek" as a mocking of not understanding when whites spoke.

: : Along the same lines, I believe the derogatory slang "honky", referring to whites, had its origins with insults like "hunky" and "bohunk". These latter are very strong insults aimed at people of an Eastern European origin. They are basically combinations of Hungarian, Bohemian (in the sense of coming from Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic)and Ukrainian. Where I come from in Western Canada, someone of Ukraininan heritage would probably take offense if you called him a "hunky" or "bohunk"; but if you called any white person a "honky", they'd probably just laugh. It seems to be more retro-cheezy than actually insulting.

: : : There are spanish(from Spain), italian and Irish. I was wondering the origin of "Spic" and "Hick". and "Ginny"?

: : "Spic" is no doubt a bastardization of "Hispanic".

: Not too long ago someone on this site had told of the era of jazz and jazz clubs (either Chicago or New York)where a "select few" black female singers would (after the show)go to the street and solicit sex. But, unlike today where prostitutes walk the streets, they would stay in the building until a car drove up and honked (usually a white male)---thus here's comes a honky.
: I applaud your non PC attitude of some of these old ethnic slurs being retro-cheezy than actually insulting. Most of these origins are very funny.
: Honk-Honk...

HONKY OR HONKIE - This derogatory term for white people probably evolved from "hunkies," according to two references. Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner by Geneva Smitherman (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1994): "Honky - a negative term for a white person. Probably derived and borrowed from the name-calling and expression of resentment by settled European Americans against central and Eastern Europeans immigrants, who were negatively referred to as 'hunkies' (from Hungarians). Blacks, in competition with these immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century, generalized the term to all whites. Also hunky."
Ditto for Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997): "HONKIE; BOHUNK - 'Bohunk,' a low expression for a Polish- or Hungarian-American, arose at the turn of the century, and is probably a blend of Bohemian and Hungarian (both Poles and Hungarians were called Bohemians). 'Bohunks' were also ' hunkies,' and black workers in the Chicago meat-packing plants probably pronounced this as 'honkie,' soon applying it as a derisive term not just for their Polish and Hungarian co-workers but for all whites."

A personal note: in West Virginia "hunkie" means Italian-American.

HICK -Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 2, H-O "n. 1. (formerly a hypocoristic form of Richard) an unsophisticated country person; bumpkin; yokel."

Anyone know what "hypocoristic" means??

HILLBILLY -- I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976): ".Mountaineer, 1834, first applied to one who hunted, wandered, or lived in the Appalachians; hillbilly , as Hill-Billy)."

By the way, the West Virginia motto is "Mountaineers are always free."

Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988): "hillbilly is exactly what the word implies - a rustic from the hills.The earliest example of its use comes from the turn of this century and from the vicinity of Arkansas. Then its use spread throughout the South and it became especially common in Kentucky and West Virginia."

But NOT where we can hear it. Hillbilly is one of them fightin' words.

Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 2, H-O by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994. "1900.In short, a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he please, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."

Lord, that makes me homesick.

GRINGO - The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins says that the ".legend that the Spanish American term 'gringo' - a pejorative label for an American - came from 'Green Grow the Lilacs' is a good story." American soldiers was supposed to have ".sang this song repeatedly" during the Mexican war and the "natives" heard it as "green-grow," thus "gringo."

".But the truth is the word 'gringo' was standard in Spain before 1787, half a century or more before the Mexican War.appearing in a Madrid publication in 1787 and meaning 'any person with a peculiar accent that prevents him from achieving the true Castilian accent.' In fact, the label 'gringo' was first pinned upon the Irish."

I like the "Green Grow the Lilacs" story better.