funk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A style of dance music with a strong rhythm, related to jazz and soul.

   She loves dancing to old-school funk.

2. 2
   noun

   A state of low spirits or mild depression.

   After a bad day, I was in a funk.

3. 3
   noun

   A strong, unpleasant smell, especially of sweat.

   There was a real funk in the locker room after the match.

Simplified etymology

Funk has several distinct and uncertain histories. In the early 17th century it meant a musty smell, from an unknown source; its later musical use developed through Black English funky, whose earlier negative sense “worthless, bad” was reversed to mean “excellent.” The separate sense “panic or anxiety,” found in 18th-century Oxford slang in blue funk, may be connected with tobacco smoke or Flemish fonck, “disturbance, agitation.”

From Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“to shine”). Cognate with Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”). See also spunk.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary