[no subject]

[Valerie Archambeau <varchamb -at- MIDWAY -dot- UCHICAGO -dot- EDU>]

>Some time back, someone (maybe Matthew Abe) posted some info
>on things to do in Minneapolis during the conference.  In
>describing a particular area he said something like:
>        "There are lots of funky restaurants there."

>Now "funky" is a word you don't hear much in Australia - I've
>never read it in a magazine or heard it in conversation but I've
>read it in novels and heard it on TV and I thought it was pre-war
>British slang for "cowardly" i.e. "in a funk" means "terrified".
>I also had a very vague idea that there is an entirely different
>usage that has something to do with afro-american music.

The American Heritage Dictionary mentioned your definition of _frightened;
panicky_ but funky is most often used in the U.S. as slang to mean hip,
cool, happenin'. :>.  AHD's 3rd definition:  Characterized by
self-expressions, originality, and modishness; unconventional as in _funky
clothes_.


>Today a post has come from Karla McMaster saying:
>        "But the writer can't make a funky product look good,..."


The AHD doesn't have a definition to cover this usage.  I think, though
that it is closely related to _having a moldy or musty smell_.  (In other
words, a product that stinks.)

If you extrapolate from the above definition that funky things are *earthy*
or *down to earth*, it is easier to see the connections between the
disparate meanings.
-- Valerie Archambeau
Information Management Specialist
Academic Information Technologies
University of Chicago