# Gobble-dy-gook? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484 "2000-04-16T21:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/1 "2000-04-16T21:04:00Z")
Not trolling for a big racist thing here, but just curious. Does anyone know where the term “gook” came from? We were thing maybe soldiers couldn’t understand the enemies speach? * * * “In this life you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” -Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey” ---
**Author:** ![EnochF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/779978/32.png) [@EnochF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnochF)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/2 "2000-04-16T21:26:00Z")
Here’s what I’ve found on “gobbledygook”: Maury Maverick, a Congressman from Texas, made up this word to mean “that terrible, involved, polysyllabic language those government people use down in Washington.” Richard Lanham calls the same thing “official prose.” Gobbledygook is another word for overly wordy writing which is filled with passive voice constructions, weak noun forms instead of strong verbs, and deadwood which gets in the way of clear communication. And here’s something else that may shed light on the last syllable: The OED tells us that the word ‘gobbledygook’ was invented by Maury Maverick of Texas and means ‘official verbiage or jargon’; the gobble part is, of course, talking turkey, and the gook, we learn elsewhere, may come from the Scottish gowk, a simpleton, or the Middle English gowhe, a cuckoo. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/3 "2000-04-16T22:14:00Z")
From [Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean](http://www.dpg.devry.edu/~akim/sck/gook.html) "The most authoritative source that I’ve read of the etymology of “gook” is _American Slang_ by Robert L. Chapman. Apparently its sordid history goes way back to the early 1900s when GI’s called a Filipino insurrectionary a gook, then a Nicaraguan, then any Pacific Islander during WWII, embraced (sic) Koreans after 1950, Vietnamese and any Asian from 1960s. Originated from “gugu,” a Filipino term, perhaps from Vicol “gururang,” “familiar spirit, personal demon,” adopted by US troops during the Filipino Insurrection in 1899, and spread among US troops in other places, invasions, etc. Probably revived after 1950 by the Korean term, “kuk,” which is a suffix of nationality, as in “Chungkuk,” “China”, etc. (Even better, “Mi-kuk”, “America.”) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/4 "2000-04-16T23:34:00Z")
Just to clarify, **EnochF** and **funneefarmer** are both correct. _Gook_ and _gobbledegook_ are _not_ related to each other. * * * Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde) ---
**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/5 "2000-04-17T00:00:00Z")
thanks guys * * * “In this life you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” -Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/6 "2000-04-17T01:22:00Z")
For the record, both my SO and I have never heard the term “gook” used routinely by any member of the US military in Korea - she not once during a full year’s tour of duty there. As for me, I recall one sailor using it on a bus during a WESTPAC deployment, at which everyone else on the bus looked at him quizzically as if to say “does this guy think we’re in an episode of MASH?” The most common slang name for a Korean was “zipperhead.” ---
**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/7 "2000-04-17T01:25:00Z")
Yeah, in the movie “Platoon,” zipperheads was big. But they also used gook. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gobble-dy-gook/10484/8 "2000-04-17T01:41:00Z")
Gazoo, please don’t take offense, but I hope that was just an observation fom a movie, not a documented argument. Gooks and Zipperheads and Dinks and Japs and Chinks and Flips are all specific, insulting designations. American servicemen have different names for each nationality of the Pacific Rim. The smart ones who want to make a career use “\_\_\_-national” BTW: Sure, you can learn about things from the movies. Just like you can learn about music by going to the circus and listening to a seal bite away at a row of horns.