Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a weak-looking, ungainly person [note Hong Kong wonk, a scruffy mongrel, lit. a ‘yellow dog’ (from Ning Po pron. of letters y.d.].

1946

(con. 1914) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 169: ‘Just look at that rotten young cad over there,’ Hazel said, pointing to a meek-looking tously-haired boy of about fourteen [...] ‘Did you ever in your life see such a wonk?’.

2. (Aus.) a white person, usu. as an insult.

1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 228–9: He went to the Dagoes and Roughs of second-class and won their friendship by buying them liquor and telling him how he had been cast out by the Wonks of the saloon.
1959		Baker Drum.

3. (Aus.) an effeminate or homosexual male.

1941		letter in S.J. Baker Papers Mitchell Lib. MS 165 Materials Box 1 File 2 The term ‘wonk’ means effeminate person, or, generally, what the English call a ‘twerp’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1970		P. Vivisector Vivisector 213: ‘I’d have to have a chauffeur to drive me about—with a good body—just for show, though. I wouldn’t mind if the chauffeur was a wonk’ [Simes:DLSS].
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 71: If he wasn’t going too well, the audience let him know about it. ‘Get off, ya wonk!’ they’d yell.
1995		A. Sullivan Virtually Normal 14: [T]he wonk [is] too nerdy or intellectual to be absorbed by girls [Simes:DLSS].

4. (orig. US campus, also wonky) anyone who works harder than the rest of the students see fit; latterly used to describe an expert, e.g. policy wonk.

1955		Harvard Crimson 18 Oct. 🌐 The articles vary from a serious appraisal of the Ivy League education to a less high-minded account of the social life of Harvard ‘wonkies’ and their Princeton and Yale counterparts, ‘ayools’ [misprint ‘tools’] and ‘weenies.’.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 223: Wonk A person who studies a great deal.
1979		(con. 1962) G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 209: Club members [...] gave a grade to the sophomore, from the highest (1: ‘ace’) to the lowest (7: [...] ‘lunchmeat,’ ‘banana,’ ‘wonk,’ ‘wombat,’ ‘turkey’).
1982		W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 300: At Harvard, the excessively studious student is derided as a ‘wonk.’.
1999		Guardian G2 20 Aug. 13: Policy wonks beavered away at their submission to a panel.
2000		M. Amis Experience 290: Some crossword wonk would get there before you.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 48: He was a policy wonk with fuck-all experience of ground-level politics.
2016		Guardian 1 July 🌐 Looking at the referendum campaigns and factoring in the deliberate and cynical demonisation of “experts”, you suddenly see what the wonks mean by “post-factual” politics.