Editing Gook (section)

== Etymology ==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' states that the origin of the word is unknown.<ref name="OED">'''gook''', ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Second Edition, 2001.</ref> An earlier usage of ''gook'', recorded in a slang dictionary published in 1893, defined ''gook'' as "a low prostitute".<ref name=farmer>{{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=John S. |last2=Henley |first2=W. E. |url=https://archive.org/stream/slangitsanalogue03farmuoft#page/181/mode/1up |title=Slang and its Analogues, Past and Present |publisher=Printed for subscribers only |date=1893 |volume=III - Fla. to Hyps. |page=181}}</ref>

The earliest use of the word in the English language comes from the name of a traditional [[Cornwall|Cornish]] [[Gook (headgear)|Bonnet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayers |first=Lynne |title=A Dangerous Place to Work! Women & Children of the Devon & Cornwall Mining Industries 1300 to 1970 |publisher=Blaize Bailey Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-9556896-0-4 |edition=1st |location=Cinderford |pages=10–17 |language=en}}</ref>

The usage for Koreans possibly comes from the [[Korean language|Korean]] word "국" (''guk''), meaning "country",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cao |first1=Lan |last2=Novas |first2=Himilce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1tskNgsz3wC&q=gook |title=Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History |publisher=[[Plume (publisher)|Plume]] |date=1996 |page=250 |isbn=9780452273153 |quote=Gook, the American racial epithet for all Asian Americans, is actually the Korean word for 'country.}}</ref> "한국" (''hanguk''), meaning "Korea", or "미국" (''miguk''), meaning "America".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lee |first=Robert G. |title=Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture |publisher=[[Temple University Press]] |date=1999 |quote=A bastardization of the Korean "Hanguk" (Korean), or Miguk (American)"}}</ref> U.S. soldiers in the Korean War might have heard locals saying ''miguk'' (미국), referring to Americans, and misinterpreted this as "Me gook."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcf_4T-nPuoC&pg=PA118 |title=Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] |page=117 |date=2003|isbn=9780275977146 }}</ref>