“I chink, therefore I am. Take back
your chinkenfreude, your Kung flu. O Wall, show
thy Chink-O-Rama, thy chinkerati, thy chink tank.
You’ll chink like a stone.”
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chink (n.1): “a split, a crack,” 1530s; from Middle English chine, Old English cinu, cine, “fissure,” from Proto-Germanic *kino-. Related to Old High German kinan, “to germinate,” Old Saxon kin, “germ.” A rift loaded with ore.
chink (n.2): derogatory term for “Chinese person,” 1879, irregular formation derived from “China” and possibly chink (n.1), with reference to eye shape. Originally British; now a word without borders.
chinky (adj.): “full of cracks or fissures,” 1640s, from chink (n.1). Also, by 1879, adjectival form of chink (n.2). Cf. James Schuyler, “the chinky Chinaman.”
©2023 Suji Kwock Kim