Clinton's “wonky”
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.
- 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’.)
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.
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