# Another definition of Honky

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-definition-of-honky/486973>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 22, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-definition-of-honky/486973 "2009-02-22T19:55:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbcps12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@gbcps12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gbcps12)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-definition-of-honky/486973/1 "2009-02-22T19:55:11Z")

</div>

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”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-definition-of-honky/486973/2 "2009-02-22T22:51:02Z")

</div>

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”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/756/whats-the-origin-of-honky)

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

> [@](#):
>
> Honky comes from bohunk and hunky, derogatory terms for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants that came into use around the turn of the century.

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=349550&highlight=honky)

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