▪ I. funky, a.1
(ˈfʌŋkɪ)
[f. funk n.3 + -y1.]
In a state of ‘funk’, frightened, nervous, timid.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. [The nervous junior counsel in Bardell v. Pickwick is named ‘Mr. Phunky’.] 1845 S. Naylor Reynard 46, I do feel somewhat funky. 1871 G. Meredith H. Richmond lii. (1889) 501 If he did not give up to you like a funky traveller to a highwayman. |
Hence ˈfunkiness.
| 1896 Punch 22 Aug. 88/2, I subdued my native funkiness so far as to make the revolution of the great wheel. |
▪ II. funky, a.2 Sc.
(ˈfʌŋkɪ)
[f. funk n.4]
‘Given to kick, as a horse’ (Ogilvie Supp. 1855).
▪ III. funky, a.3
(ˈfʌŋkɪ)
[f. funk n.2 + -y1.]
1. Mouldy, old, musty; smelling strong or bad. Now U.S. dial.
| 1784 Twamley Dairying 11 [Faults in Cheese] Sweet or Funkey Cheese. Ibid. 30 A means of preventing Sweet, or Funkey Cheese. 1906 Dialect Notes III. 118 This butter's funky. 1909 Ibid. 396 This room smells funky. 1929 T. Wolfe Look Homeward iv. 41 [A Negress's] strong smell, black and funky. a 1938 ― Web & Rock (1947) 25 Breathe in the funky nigger stench. 1962 J. Baldwin Another Country (1963) i. i. 12 They knew..why his hair was nappy, his armpits funky. |
2. Of jazz or similar music: down-to-earth and uncomplicated; emotional; having the qualities of the blues. Also in extended use: ‘in’, ‘swinging’, fashionable. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1954 Time 8 Nov. 42 Funky, authentic, swinging. 1957 [see bop n.2]. 1959 ‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene vi. 119 Critics are on the search for something a little more like the old, original, passion-laden blues: the trade-name which has been suggested for it is ‘funky’ (literally: ‘smelly’, i.e. symbolising the return from the upper atmosphere to physical, down-to-earth, reality). 1960 Melody Maker 31 Dec., Horace [Silver] recalls that the use of the word funk in the modern sense goes back to his composition ‘Opus de Funk’. ‘When you put a lot of little blues inflections in the solos, people would say you were really funky, by which they just mean bluesy, and that is how I came up with the title. So the critics started to talk about me as funky.’ 1962 John o' London's 10 May 457/1 He has a strong blues feeling and he doesn't overdo the fashionable ‘funky’ business. 1969 Sat. Rev. 27 Sept. 25/1 You can't hype kids into buying things they don't want, even with people in funky clothes soft-selling them. 1970 Sunday Times 8 Feb. 15/1 John and Yoko: a life-style that's getting funkier all the time. 1971 Frendz 21 May 17/1 Brown Sugar and Bitch are Jagger at his foxy, dirty, funky best. |
Add: Hence (in sense 2) ˈfunkily adv.; ˈfunkiness n.2
| 1968 Rat 3 May 22/1 He sat at the electric organ,..breaking into incredible funkiness with the whole orchestra for the refrain. 1976 Sounds 11 Dec. 28/6 For all its embarrassingly prosaic lyric, ‘Alaskan Pipeline’ stomps funkily along with Gladys wailing up a storm over a chunky groove. 1986 Washington Post 17 Aug. e9/2 Many of the buildings retain an air of faded funkiness, and some of the back streets are best avoided at night. 1990 N.Y. Newsday 21 Mar. iii. 2/1 The place is cozy and funkily romantic, just the spot for a tryst. |