# What's a Mook?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 1, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314 "2000-07-01T23:39:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FreakFreely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@FreakFreely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FreakFreely)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/1 "2000-07-01T23:39:52Z")

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This is my absolute, hands down, favorite insult. Especially since nobody seems to know what it really means. Problem is, neither do I. Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2000, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/2 "2000-07-01T23:53:23Z")

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Go watch Scorsese’s “Mean Streets”, see if anyone in that movie ever finds out what the answer is.

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**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/3 "2000-07-02T00:21:23Z")

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I’m sure this is completely irrelevant, but “mook” is a fairly well-known term in Japanese. Its an invented word that is a contraction of “magazine” and “book.”

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**Author:** ![QirQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/848f3c/32.png) [@QirQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QirQ)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/4 "2000-07-02T01:01:46Z")

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I’ve heard it in referance to a morrocan low life or thug. Check french slangs and terminology. This is just a WAG.

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**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/5 "2000-07-02T06:24:37Z")

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From my dictionary of Trinidad & Tobago phrases:

“Mook: A very stupid person. See MING\_PILLING, CHUPIDEE”

There you have it. Now I have no idea if that’s the same phrase as in Mean Streets, but seeing how Trinidadians have a fairly strong presence in New York, I could see how the term could spread to Italians and other groups there.

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**Author:** ![silent\_rob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@silent\_rob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silent_rob)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2000, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-mook/24314/6 "2000-07-02T07:43:40Z")

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Hey there. My friend uses this one a lot. He apparently did some digging and he’s told me that it’s a derrogative term for people from South America (though I am not sure if he means a particular country or the whole continent). Though he uses it in pretty much any context. I don’t know if his explanation is totally accurate because I know that a Mook Jong or Mook Yan Yong is a martial arts wooden training dummy. This therefore makes the insult very fitting. Here’s a page that sells them and discusses their use:  
[Mook Jong Trainer](http://mookjong.20m.com/)  
I’ve actually seen Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and other martial arts movie stars use these before but never caught the name. Later all.