gink

Unknown but possibly from similar senses of kink or geck. Cf. geek.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɪŋk/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

gink (plural ginks)

1. (originally US slang) A guy, a fellow, especially (derogatory) a foolish, unworldly, or socially inept man; a goof.
   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎, All-Story Cavalier Weekly:

     […] so if any of you ginks are me frien's yeh better keep outen here so's yeh won't get hurted […]

   • 1931, Grace Hegger Lewis, Half a Loaf‎, page 189:

     Don't see a movie in it myself, but those Hollywood ginks will take anything.

   • 1934, George Herriman, Krazy Kat, Wednesday, May 2 comic strip (→ISBN, p. 125):

     [Asian sage:] You have a great, great fear of Officer Pupp. Ain't you, mouse? / [Ignatz:] Yes. / [Asian sage:] I can tell you how to overcome it. / [Ignatz:] Tell me. / [Asian sage:] Gimme dime, I tell. / [Ignatz:] Here it is. / [Asian sage, walking away from an aghast Ignatz:] Don't be afraid of the big gink. / [Officer Pupp, incoming:] Gink? What gink?

   • 1973, Richard Cowper, Clone‎, Doubleday, page 33:

     No wonder the country's on its bloody knees! You ginks are a bloody disgrace to the human race!

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, OCLC 59891543, page 23:

     Adrian felt that it was he who had brought Tom into notice and popularity, that Tom was his own special creation. The silent spotty gink of the first year had been transformed into someone admired and imitated and Adrian wasn't sure how much he liked it.

• See Thesaurus:person, Thesaurus:man, Thesaurus:friend; Thesaurus:dork, Thesaurus:fool

• “gink, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017.

• King, king