ENGLISH
REFERENCE

honky

n. countable
C2 Proficiency US //ˈhɔŋki// UK //hˈɒŋki// honky Archaic Vulgar

n. a very rude and offensive word for a white person. It is almost always used in a mean or angry way to show that someone is being a bad person.

n. a highly derogatory and offensive term for a white person. Often used to imply that the person is ignorant, prejudiced, or acting in a morally inferior manner.


SIMPLE

The graffiti on the wall read 'Go back to your honky town'.

CONTEXTUAL

The comedian used the word 'honky' in a joke that was meant to be shocking, but many in the audience found it deeply offensive.

Synonyms
Origin

Sense of “factory hand” attested from 1946. Compare hunky, bohunk. Most likely from hunky (“Hungarian, Slav, eastern European; any white person”), an African-American vernacular shortening of Hungarian. Another possible etymon is Wolof xonq (“red, pink”), a term frequently used in African languages to describe white men. As a term of racial abuse it was popularized by the Black Panther Party starting from 1967, who sought a rebuttal to nigger.

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