ANYONE out there ever heard of a HonYok!?

[TexasLady]

or hanyak, My daddy used to call me and my siblings this word and said HIS daddy used to call HIM that..Im certain it must be from European language..just dont know which one..

can anyone enlighten me on this word? hawn - yawk..thats the best way to pronounce it i think...

[Reader Rabbit]

1. I haven't heard that term in years!

My dad used to call us that, too! He was from NJ, so I figured it was something he learned growing up. To my knowledge, all his family had been in the States for quite a few generations, so I doubt it was something brought from the "Old Country."

I'll ask him!

[salvorhardin]

2. Google is your friend :-)

http://www.hotrodders.com/t15439.html

Since I was born and raised in southeastern Ohio in the foothills of the Applachian Mountains, and virtually all of my neighbors were Italian, Sicilian, French, Chech, Poles, Lithuanian, Greek, Yugoslavakian, Bohemian, with a smattering of German and Hungarian, I feel I am distinctly qualified to answer your question. "Honyok" n. (derived from the European word "Honyok") from the "Dictionary of the Slang Language of Hunkeys") is the same thing as what Americans call a "Yehu", a "dipstick", or a "Goofball."

Benji

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Heard it up here in NY - Mom used the term all the time...

...to describe unruly children.

[nuxvomica]

4. My dad used to use that term

I think it's hunyak. As in "Come over here, you little hunyak." I suspect it's a perjorative term for some ethnic group but he always used it jauntily to address us kids.

[TexasLady]

5. wow, as far as i know

we are english and irish...so i am surprised to see so many others knowing what that term means!

thanks you honyoks!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. Don't ask my why I saved this link, maybe just for this one

occasion, but here ya go, from the Dictionary of Racial Slurs

http://www.rsdb.org/search?q=hunyak

Is, as I recall it from the Swedes and Estonians of my youth, the same as a Pollack, but more like a gypsy pollack.

Very derogatory term in Europe, I would imagine.