What is "pinoy"

Pinoy is an informal demonym referring to the Filipino people in the Philippines and their culture as well as to overseas Filipinos in the Filipino diaspora.

An unspecified number of Filipinos refer to themselves as Pinoy or sometimes the feminine Pinay. The word is formed by taking the last four letters of Filipino and adding the diminutive suffix -y in the Tagalog language (the suffix is commonly used in Filipino nicknames: e.g. "Ninoy" or "Noynoy" for Benigno Jr. and III respectively], "Totoy" for Augusto, etc.). Pinoy was used for self-identification by the first wave of Filipinos going to the continental United States before World War II and has been used both in a pejorative sense and as a term of endearment, similar to Chicano. Although Pinoy and Pinay are regarded as derogatory by some younger Filipino-Americans, the terms have been widely used and have recently gained mainstream usage particularly among members of the Filipino masses and the Filipino-American sector.

Pinoy was created to differentiate the experiences of those immigrating to the United States but is now a slang term used to refer to all people of Filipino descent. "Pinoy music" impacted the socio-political climate of the 1970s and was employed by both Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and the People Power Revolution that overthrew his regime. Recent mainstream usages tend to center on entertainment ( Pinoy Big Brother) and music ( Pinoy Idol), which have played a significant role in developing national and cultural identity. As of 2016, the term has been extensively used by the government of the Philippines itself with apparently no derogatory connotations. It is now more positive than the slang term "flip".