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When did the meaning of funky change from being super groovy like James Brown to meaning something gross and smelly? It’s awfully confusing, to say the least.
Which meaning do you use?
~ cartoon from the fabulous Natalie Dee ~
funky
08 Friday Jan 2010
Posted in language
casa azahar 
Well there you go, I wasn’t even aware of the gross & smelly meaning
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I’m with super-cool and groovy, myself.
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Yeah, I can’t remember when I first heard funky used “the other way” … maybe a couple of years ago? Someone was talking about a restaurant or bar and referred to it as being funky. And I thought – oh, cool! But in fact, quite the opposite was meant.
And that’s the real problem – if you refer to a person or a place as being funky without any other context. I wonder how it ever came to mean smelly & gross.
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I’ve just read one definition of funky which suggests it comes from the French funquer, to give off smoke.
Maybe the gross&smelly definition actually predates our perception of its meaning?
http://www.answers.com/topic/funky
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Well, I’ll be…
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If I was using it, it would be for groovy (never seen the other meaning before, either).
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Well, and then there is being in a funk, which is like depressed or frightened. Why are we so astonished at the erosion and change of language? Look what happened to the world “Gay”. Why should “funky” be immune? I personally use it in the sense of a sort of odd but cool decor or manner of dress.
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Certainly I’m not bothered about changes in meaning – just interested in the possible consequences of not realising that there IS another meaning etc.
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Not astonished or bothered either, but because I didn’t know this other meaning existed before a couple of years ago, imagine who I might have insulted.
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Actually, the term funky as related to cool is a VERY recent thing….
“The first recorded use of funky is in 1784 in a reference to musty, old, moldy cheese. Funky then developed the sense “smelling strong or bad” and could be used to describe body odor. The application of funky to jazz was explained in 1959 by one F. Newton in Jazz Scene: “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. symbolizing the return from the upper atmosphere to the physical, down-to-earth reality).”” The Free Dictionary
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I’ve heard of both usages but I only say it in the same sense that HMH does. Great explanation from the Free Dictionary Mudhooks
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I always thought the “smelly” meaning was American. I only ever use it to mean cool and groovy, but usually in a post-ironic context 😉
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Gives a whole other meaning to the term “funky chicken”…
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“In a funk” is an equally old term. I was surprised see it used by Sara Hutchinson in the early 1800s(“The Letters of Sara Hutchinson 1800-1835”). In fact, that usage dates back probably to at least 1735-45 and is probably from the Dutch/Flemish “fonck” meaning disturbance or agitation.
funk (1)
“depression, ill-humor,” 1743, probably originally Scottish and northern English, earlier as a verb, “panic, fail through panic,” (1737), said to be 17c. Oxford University slang, perhaps from Flem. fonck “perturbation, agitation, distress,” possibly related to O.Fr. funicle “wild, mad.”
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