# The word "mook." **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756 "2004-12-20T07:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/1 "2004-12-20T07:07:22Z")
According to [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), a mook is a “contemptible or insignificant person.” It has a certain appeal for referring to someone who inconveniences you, eg “some mook held up the line at lunch,” but I’m hesitant to use it in case it turns out to have any racial connotations. Could I use it in place of “jerk” or would I be alienating people? ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/2 "2004-12-20T07:08:48Z")
In Japan it means a **m** agazine/b **ook**. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/3 "2004-12-20T08:14:03Z")
Whatever you do, don’t call anyone a “mook” if they happen to be hanging out with Robert De Niro. This might help from the Word Detective: > [@](#): > > Mooky business > > Dear Word Detective: I’m having a tough time finding a good definition or etymology for the word “mook.” I think I’ve established from context an approximate meaning of “unsavory (or unpolished) fellow.” Perhaps a rabble consists of a collection of mooks? As I’ve heard it spoken by a local DJ, and a TV detective from New York City, “mook” rhymes with “kook” and may be a regionalism from New Jersey or New York. A survey of dictionaries only helped a tad – one indicated that “mook” might derive from “mooch” (so a mook might be a moocher), while another suggested that it meant marijuana (mook equals pothead?), and might be related to “mota” – which is slang for marijuana among many of us Latinos. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. – Richard Brooks, Library Troll, The Exploratorium, San Francisco. > > Wow, for a troll, you certainly cover a lot of ground. I’d be interested to know which dictionaries gave you those leads about “mook.” As far as I can tell, they are not correct, but there’s so much mystery associated with “mook” that any extra shard of information is worth pursuing. Most of my reference books don’t even list “mook,” much less define it or trace its origin. > > One dictionary that does deal with “mook” is the recently published Volume Two of the excellent Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (which I will call “HDAS” to save space). According to HDAS, “mook” means “an ineffectual, foolish, or contemptible person,” so your definition is certainly in the ballpark. The earliest citation HDAS lists is from 1930. > > As to the origin of “mook,” HDAS ventures that it is probably a variation on “moke,” a slang term dating back to the middle of the 19th century. “Moke” means several things: originally, it was a slang and dialect term in England for a donkey, but it has also been used as a term of contempt for a Black person or any dark-skinned person. But “moke” has also been used since at least 1855 to mean “a foolish or inconsequential person,” which certainly ties it to “mook.” Unfortunately, no one has any clear idea of where “moke” came from. So I guess we’ll both just have to keep digging. I always thought it had a racial conotation, but then again there have been a few black professional athletes with the name “Mooky” ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/4 "2004-12-20T13:32:51Z")
Mook was a standard term of opprobrium employed by the late, lamented Mike Royko in his syndicated column from Chicago. I have never heard a racial implication associated with it and Mr. Royko spent enough years as a bonafide liberal in Chicago that I’m pretty sure that any racial overtones would have eliminated it from his vocabulary. In most of the stories in whch he referred to mooks, he was describing denizens of Irish or Polish working class bars–or politicians, of course. This, of course, is not to prevent some person from _choosing_ to take offense at its use in the manner of the objections raised against niggardly, but the mid- late-20th century use of the word did not customarily carry any racial or ethnic baggage. (I am aware that Mr. Royko, literally following the definition of a conservative as a “liberal who has been mugged” might not be perceived by the younger set as a classic liberal, but even in his later years (and always in his forthright speech) he never went out of his way to be offensive–brutal, but not offensive). ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/5 "2004-12-20T13:36:01Z")
I’ve heard it on the Baci chocolate ads and never understood what the hell it was 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/6 "2004-12-20T13:39:16Z")
(From Royko’s keyboard, I always linked the meaning of mook to that of _schlemiel_.) ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/7 "2004-12-20T13:59:19Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Mook was a standard term of opprobrium employed by the late, lamented Mike Royko in his syndicated column from Chicago. I have never heard a racial implication associated with it and Mr. Royko spent enough years as a bonafide liberal in Chicago that I’m pretty sure that any racial overtones would have eliminated it from his vocabulary. Even late into his career, Royko had at least one major accusation of racism. In Chicago, liberal isn’t necessarily free from “groupist” thoughts. Many Irish/Polish/Mexican/Black/Chinese/etc. groups that are seemingly liberal exclude other groups in their policies in ways that could be construed (and not without cause) as racist. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-mook/280756/8 "2004-12-20T18:25:22Z")
I’ve only heard it in the context of roleplaying games where it means much the same as ‘canon fodder’, though not quite.