• Spunk

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /spʌŋk/
    • Rhymes: -ʌŋk

    Origin

    1530, sparkfunk (obsolete, "spark").

    Funk ("spark, touchwood") is from Middle English funke, fonke ("spark"), from Old English *funce, *fanca ("spark"), from Proto-Germanic *funkô, *fankô ("spark"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng-, *(s)pheng- ("to shine"), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke ("spark"), Middle Dutch vonke ("spark"), Old High German funcho, funko ("spark"), German Funke ("spark").

    Full definition of spunk

    Noun

    spunk

    (usually uncountable; plural spunks)
    1. (countable, obsolete) A spark.
      • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, , 2009, page 109,“...That′s none such an entirely bad little man, yon little man with the red head,” said Alan. “He has some spunks of decency.”
    2. (uncountable) Touchwood; tinder.
      • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red.
    3. (countable, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match.
      • 1829, Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick (Edinburgh), Report, page 7,At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door.
      • 1843, John Wilson, John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg, The Noctes Ambrosianæ of “Blackwood”, Volume IV, page 396,“Spunks — spunks — spunks — who will buy my spunks?” — cried an errant voice with a beseeching earnestness....
    4. (uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
    5. (countable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person (normally male).
      • 2005, Sue Austin, Women′s Aggressive Fantasies: A Post-Jungian Exploration of Self-Hatred, Love and Agency, Routledge, UK, page 166,We are welcomed by 20 year old spunks, as we make a last valiant attempt with our bodies - gasp, gasp - and try to get back in shape.
    6. (uncountable, chiefly UK, vulgar, slang) Semen.

    Verb

    1. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.

    Anagrams

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