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What do people understand this word to mean? In my mental lexicon it's stored as being similar to cool as a term of approbation, but more often used by soul music fans.
On another board I frequent, however, one of the members seems to use it to mean maladroit. I have sometimes wondered about his ummm idiosyncratic use of the English language, but his profile reveals an English-sounding name, and he claims to be a native of the USA.
Any comments from the board at large? And what by the way is the connection between funky and funk?
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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MHO-- is is a music term, one that calls to mind a note, or rhythm that is slightly off.. a flat where you would expect a sharp... wrong, but, somehow not so wrong that it sound bad, just enough to throw you off step..
in people its the same thing.. the person who wears orange and purple say... and yet, somehow, it doesn't look clownish, they manage to somehow pull it off.. (where as on any normal person, it would be garish, and weird.) that's funky not quite maladroit, but it a way of doing things that, in normal circumstances, would be, and yet making them seem right..
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addict
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addict
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funky to me means two things 1) too cool for school, 2)unidentifiable bad smell
-from the tv programme Angel aired 6/2/01 Virginia: I'll call Patty and tell her you'll take the job. Wesley: Uh, sweetie, no phone. Cordelia: And no lights. Gunn: And there's a funky smell. Virginia: I wasn't gonna say anything.
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Carpal Tunnel
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my daughter (16 y.o.) uses the word constantly (read: overuses); she claims it means "weird".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Per OED: FUNK : tinder strong smell, esp of tobacco smoke funky music cowering fear, panic, teror person who funks - coward FUNKY: musty, mouldy Jazz, down-to-earth and uncomplicated. soulful, bluesy, syncopated fashionable, trendy nervous, timid.
So the language morphs again! I take Helen's meaning and have felt that her definition is true but also think funky - as applied to clothing - would be a sort of a dress in a gypsy look at a formal party that is somehow carried off with panache. Like the old story "She wore a kilt and everyone in satin felt overdressed." But have used the word "funk" as in "I'm in a blue funk" - a sort of mix of melancholy and frustration - a state that passes quickly when action is initiated. Make sense to anyone?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Funky is often heard used tongue-in-cheek, as the really cool people don't use it any more and, when they use it at all, need to put it inside of quotation marks, so you (the hearer) understand that they don't really use it, at all.
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Carpal Tunnel
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(You got to funkifize) Now if you want to get funky, like a bow-legged monkey, I'm telling you; (You got to funkifize) Got to kick to the backbeat before you get too old, You got to flash to the fire and let it grab your soul! (Grab your soul) Ha, ha, ha, ha! Just let it be for real, bop to the rock, If you've got the power. Now you all know what you got to do, You can't lay dead, just catch that groove, oh! You Got To Funkifize-Tower of Power 1972 This song is especially great if you have a lot of snow to shovel. Just slap on the headphones and funkifize the drive  And they're still touring folks http://www.bumpcity.com/
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Carpal Tunnel
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and you can be in a funk...
edit--> sorry, just read wow's post a little more closely. I'm agreeing. yeah, that's it
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