Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also gu-gu) a derog. term for an Asian or dark-skinned foreigner; esp. a Filipino.

1899		New Oxford Item (Gettysburg, PA) 7/1: A ‘goo-goo’ is a Filipino who follows the cause of the revolution.
1900		Star and Sentinel (Gettysburg, PA) 4/5: ‘Gugu’ – An insurgent native, said to be invented by the 20th Kansas Volunteers.
1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 35: ‘Rookies,’ ‘Googoos,’ and other weak people seemed to be the favorite object of Sergeant Larry’s bad humor.
1918		(con. 1899) E.S. O’Reilly Roving and Fighting 70: If that gu-gu aims that gun at me again, I’m going to shoot!
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 35: I soon learned to shin up a coconut tree like a goo-goo.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 35: I got in wrong with the Goo-goo’s (Philippinos) in this cannery.
1940		Black Mask Mar. XXII 29: There’s too many Gugus in this town.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Cooked!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 A Filipino house-boy finally opened up for us. I said: ‘We want to see Mr. Lerch. Tell him it’s the cops.’ The gugu widened his eyes.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Goo Goos: Natives of Philippines.
1946		J.W. Bishop ‘American Army Speech’ in AS XXI:4 Dec. 252: The American soldier [...] has preferred the easier course of letting the limeys or frogs or krauts or gu-gus, or whatever he calls the natives, learn American.
1958		L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 275: If that steward don’t send one of them goo-goo’s back here with a bag of that powdered cow dung they use for coffee, I’m gonna go up and get it myself!
1960		(con. 1950) R. Leckie March to Glory (1962) 69: The Goo-Goos are late.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 57: The natives, whom the Americans called ‘goo-goos’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1907		C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 39: One of those gu-gu stoves you could carry around in your hip pocket.
1936		R.L. Bellem ‘Falling Star’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 He spoke to the Filipino chicken again. ‘I’ll put you under the daisies if you don’t kick in with that ring, you damned Gugu slut!’.

3. an unintelligible foreign language.

1972

(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 231: He might as well have been talking goo-goo.