honky

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk.

Term of racial abuse attested 1967, most likely from hunky, an African-American vernacular shortening of Hungarian.

Another possible etymon is the Wolof word honq (red, pink), a term frequently used in African languages to describe white men.[1]

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɒŋki

Noun

honky (plural honkies)

  1. (Canada, US, pejorative, ethnic slur) A Caucasian person.
  2. (US, obsolete) A factory hand or general unskilled worker.

Synonyms

  • (white person): Thesaurus:white person

References

  • “honky” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
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