Link Centre Dictionary

spunk

UK/spʌŋk/ US/ˈspʌŋk/ uncommon obsolete slang uk vulgar

noun

1.
2.

the courage to carry on

  • “he kept fighting on pure spunk”
  • “you haven”
Synonyms

Origin

1530, blend of spark + funk (obsolete, “spark”). Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-West Germanic *funkō, from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“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”).

Phrases

  • spunk off

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.