Twinkie

See also: twinkie

English

Etymology

The brand name is said to be a diminutive, twinkle +‎ -ie (or otherwise modified), based on a billboard for "Twinkle Toe Shoes" in St. Louis, although there are also claims for solely one or the other. The meaning in reference to well-assimilated Asians is derived from the slur that they are "yellow on the outside, white on the inside".

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtwɪŋki/
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋki
  • Homophones: twinkie, twinky

Noun

Twinkie (plural Twinkies)

  1. (food) A yellow cake with a creamy white filling, known for its artificiality and supposedly long shelf life.
  2. (derogatory, ethnic slur) Synonym of banana: A person of East Asian descent considered to have overly assimilated and to be subservient to white authority, an East Asian race traitor.
  3. Alternative letter-case form of twinkie.

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.