Clinton's “wonky”

Question

Until today I would have said that wonky means to be unstable, a word similar to wobbly. Any piece of furniture on legs can be wonky, it usually means one of the legs is slighter shorter than the others, but you can even have a wonky computer or TV set.

However, today I learnt that American candidates can be wonky too.

01.45 BBC News

Journalist: What is the real Hillary Clinton like?
Marjorie Margolies: She's wonky. She presents as if she knows the issues [...] that makes some people uncomfortable, particularly because they're not comfortable with wonky women.

What has happened to wonky?! When did wonky mean smart and policy-focused? Is this just an American English expression? Do Australians, Canadians have wonky women too?

Answer 1

It derives from the OED sense 4 of the word wonk.

It is often used of government officials with a very narrow, but deep field of expertise. For example someone within the Foreign Office, or State Department with a profound knowledge of China, and everything Chinese might be described as a China wonk.

4. U.S. A disparaging term for a studious or hard-working person.

1962 Sports Illustr. 17 Dec. 21 A wonk, sometimes called a ‘turkey’ or a ‘lunch’, roughly corresponds to the ‘meatball’ of a decade ago.

1970 E. Segal Love Story 32 Who could Jenny be talking to that was worth appropriating moments set aside for a date with me? Some musical wonk?

1980 N.Y. Times Mag. 20 July 8 At Harvard the excessively studious student is derided as a ‘wonk’, which Amy Berman, Harvard '79, fancifully suggests may be ‘know’ spelled backward. (In British slang, ‘wonky’ means ‘unsteady’.)

Answer 2

According to the Gramnarist, the different meanings of wonky are used in all English dialects. The "smart, policy-focused" connotation appears to be from the AmE slang term wonk (a derogatory term for a studious person) of the late 20th century:

The adjective wonky has two unrelated senses that are both used throughout the English-speaking world.

1) - Its older and more commonly used definition is unstable, defective, unreliable, or wobbly. For instance, a bad knee or a table with loose fittings might be called wonky, as might a person who behaves unpredictably

2) - The word’s second sense is studiously concerned with minutiae. It connotes the kind of expertise that only a long-time insider within a given field can have, and it often comes up in politics, where a wonky person is one who is immersed in the details of policy.

• Wonky in its second sense comes from the slightly older noun wonk, which emerged in the United States in the late 20th century as slang for a studious person concerned with minutiae. Wonk‘s origins are not known, however. Wonky in the first sense came about in the early 20th century, is British in origin, and has no corresponding noun, so it doesn’t appear that the two senses of wonky share a common origin.

As suggested by @Mitch, a related expression that has been around from the '80s is policy wonk:

• an expert in administration or government, esp. one overly concerned with policy details. Usage Note: slang.

Answer 3

In A Political Theory of Geeks and Wonks, Jeffrey Tucker characterized wonks as

Political wonks are fascinated by process. They love the game. They get as much satisfaction from observing as changing. They want to be players above all else. Ideals bore them. History is mere data. Intellectuals seem irrelevant. What matters to the wonk are the hard realities of the ongoing political struggle. They defer to title and rank. They thrive on meetings, small victories, administrative details, and gossip about these matters. Knowing who is who and what is what is the very pith of life.

In contrast and often opposition are the geeks.

In contrast to this are the policy geeks. They are no less fascinated by detail but are drawn to ideals. Observation alone bores them. They are drawn to the prospect of change. They don't want to be players as such; they question the very rules of the game and want to change them. They are happy to make a difference in the ideological infrastructure, whether big or small. They tend to work alone and totally disregard caste distinctions. They are interested not in the surface area but what's underneath, not the veneer but the wood. In software terms, they are forever looking forward to the next build. They are risk takers, so they prefer to debug after the system is live.

The author places a few historical figures into these buckets.

• Caesar: Wonk
• Brutus: Geek
• Hamilton: Wonk
• Jefferson: Geek
• Cheney: Wonk
• Paul: Geek

Answer 4

Grant Barrett, The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang (2004) has this entry for wonk:

wonk n. an expert on intricate policies; (broadly) a studious or hardworking person. Also policy wonk. [Cited examples omitted.]

As presented here, wonk is clearly not a pejorative term. However, the limits of wonk as a positive notion are suggested by the same dictionary's entry for wonkism:

wonkism n. excessively deep knowledge of policies; the habits or character of a WONK. [Cited examples omitted.]

The implicit criticism embedded in the term wonkism would thus appear to be along the lines of "how could anyone care that much about something that boring?" This criticism is probably familiar to the many people at this site who are, in effect, grammar and usage wonks.

William Safire, Safire's Political Dictionary (2008) has this take on the term policy wonk:

policy wonk A grimly serious scholar of the tedious side of public affairs; stiff staffer steeped in study.

In the 1992 election, both Bill Clinton and Al Gore were known to delight in the minutiae of program development, causing Meg Greenfield of Newsweek to refer to them as "tough., ambitious, leadership-minded policy wonks."

Wonk is nautical slang for "cadet," but there is no clear relation between the terms. Sports Illustrated in 1962 wrote: "A wonk, sometimes called a 'turkey' or a 'lunch,' roughly corresponds to the 'meatball' of a decade ago." The suggestion that wonk may be "know spelled backward" may be dismissed as folk etymology.

In the 1984 Presidential election Sidney Blumenthal of The New Republic used the academic slang politically, referring to Walter Mondale's "thralldom to the policy wonks an wise men of the Washington establishment." In 2007 Hillary Clinton, presenting her concerns about healthcare costs to an audience of medical professionals at George Washington University, having been described in the local media as "a battle-scarred participant in the 1993 health-care overhaul failure," made a self-deprecating comment about not getting "overly wonky," using the adjective derived in 1978 from the noun.

It thus appears that hostility to expertise has long (at least since 1984) been embedded in the negative use of "policy wonk," "wonkism," and "wonky" in a political context. Nevertheless, there is also a hint of grudging admiration in the term "policy wonk," implying the same kind of uneasy respect that mainstream law students have for fellow students who plan to specialize in tax law.

Answer 5

According to Law Notes Volume 50 (1931) and well as The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal, Volume 65 (1931):

"Wonky" takes its place in the English language as a technical term of law. One of the judges at the Old Bailey last month said: "I think 'wonky' means that you are wrong in your head, but your legs are all right." This definition may be questioned: some hold the opinion that it means the reverse. However, the Editor of "Stroud's Judicial Dictionary " must take care that " wonky " appears in the next edition. Someone has suggested that it is to be found in one of Shakespeare's plays. Can any reader help?

"Wonk" has a different meaning.

According to Harvard Alumni Bulletin 1957:

...generally the Lampoon has of late seemed to many rather tame. But in the month of March Lampy tolled in a new slate of officers "with an ecstatic yank on the bell cord" and produced the widely discussed "Wonk Number". Before launching into an attack on the wonk in general and the Harvard wonk in particular, the Lampoon defined its terms. " 'It's a difference in attitude,' muttered the Jester. . . . 'They don't have my values! They don't respect The Old Order! Instead of vests, they adorn themselves with slide rules; with slide rules; they dress as if they'd bought their clothes blindfolded at a Polish rummage sale. They disgust me!'" While the March edition made a faint attempt to satirize the values of The Old Order, as a "Wonk Number" it was almost exclusively dedicated to an attack on the "unsuitable" elements in Harvard today.