Another definition of Honky

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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I have seen the definition of the word honky and was wondering if anyone ever heard this definition. Someone thought the high pitched sound of white Anglos when they spoke sounded like a goose honking. Hence the birth of the term “Honky”.

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Welcome to the Boards, gbcps12. When you’re talking about a column either by Cecil or Staff Member, you should provide a link so that people can follow along. It’s as simple as copying and pasting the url.

What’s the origin of “honky”?

By the way, that column was from 1988. Even then Cecil knew that

We’ve had a few threads about this column. I’ll link to them.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=349550&highlight=honky

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=389380&highlight=honky

Cecil’s column had an addition from Tom Cochman, a professor of Communications, who said the word might have come from the African Wolof language. It didn’t.

Also, Cecil cited Robert Hendrickson who said that the term might have been picked up by blacks in Chicago meat packing plants and applied to all whites. While this is possible, Mr. Hendrickson’s book is rife with errors. It’s one of the least reliable sources on language. Just saying.

Honky is findable in Black English as early as the 1940s but really came into its own in the 1960s.