Friday Funk Fun

[Mike Mcgraw <mcgraw -at- BROOKTREE -dot- COM>]

Hello Margaret! Hello Australia!

        Recalling your question of last week to mind, you said:

> Hi Techwhirlers,
> .... "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.  So the
> two usages that have popped up recently in this forum have left
> me completely mystified.

> What does "funky" mean?  Is it slang?  Is it confined to
> converstaion? (I consider these posts to be conversation.)  What
> is a funky restaurant?
>                               Margaret Gerard
>                               margaret%mailhost -at- TOSHIBA -dot- TIC -dot- OZ -dot- AU


        Well, I've always thought "funky" to mean "well read, literate,
and adept with interesting words."  It seems only logical that "funk"
and its adjectival cousin "funky" have come to us from Wilfred and
Charles Funk, relatives of the famous lexicographer of the same mane.

        Wilfred Funk's well-known *(Funky) Word Origins* and his nephew
Charles' *Thereby Hangs a (Funky) Tale* have educated generations of
funky writers.  Pick up a copy at your local Bookstar (Australia DOES
have Bookstar, right?) and you'll be amazed at the change in your
vocabulary.  You too can be funky.  :*)

        By the way.  I attended the conference in Minneapolis.  Met a
number of whirlers there.  Had a ball.  What a nice city!  See you all
next April in Washington?

                Mike McGraw
                San Diego STC (soon to be ex-)newsletter editor
                and author of "WordsWorth", an irregular column on words
                        (or is that a column on irregular words?)