honyock

Etymology

 * Historically, honyock referred to immigrant homesteaders "stubbornly" farming "hardscrabble" or "hardpan" land considered better suited to livestock ranching.
 * The first recorded usage in print appeared before 1860. Usage of the word peaked around 1927, and subsequently fell into relative disuse by 1980.
 * Multiple possible origins of this word have been suggested:
 * Portmanteau word from Hun/Hungarian and the ethnic slur Polack.
 * Derivation of the German compound word "", meaning honey chaser; A reference to pursuing "sweet" opportunities and inevitably getting "stung" by unanticipated but predictable consequences.
 * Derivation of the Hungarian adjective "", and its multiple definitions and negative connotations such as careless, sloppy, slothful and slow.

Noun

 * 1)  A person (especially a farmer) of relatively recent Central or Eastern European peasant extraction.
 * 2) * 1938, Unknown FWP Author, A South Dakota Guide, Works Project Administration, Chapter 1, South Dakota Today:
 * Today "honyock," or farming homesteader, and old-timer live peaceably side by side and each has learned much from the other. The old-timer taught his neighbor the art of stock raising on the range, and the honyock convinced the old-timer that some forage crops could be raised and that it was not good economics to ship out a carload of cows and at the same time ship in a carload of condensed milk.
 * 1)  A person who is foolish, stupid, oafish, wild, impetuous, or stubborn.

Usage notes

 * Like other ethnic slurs that've been appropriated by their intended targets, today it is often used in a jocular or affectionate manner when addressing one's own family or friends.
 * It is sometimes used in less rural contexts as an epithet imputing the incompetence of some despised white-collar professional or politician to some presumed "honyock" origin.

Synonyms

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