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Subject:Re: A Friday query From:"Charles P. Campbell" <cpc -at- NMT -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 31 May 1994 09:26:31 -0600
Margaret, I think your Friday query got delayed in delivery until
Tuesday. It's been a three-day weekend here in the States, and
the servers took a holiday too, because your Friday query is among
my last messages dated Tuesday. Anyway.
You were wondering about "funky." I don't have my official slang
dictionary at this workstation, but I seem to recall that "funky"
originated in Afro-American slang, meaning (How can we say this
politely?) "the odor exuded by a female in a state of estrus."
Clearly the meaning has migrated some if "funky" can be used to
describe Minneapolis restaurants--but then, I can't say, not having
gone to the STC conference either.
"Funky" seems to have passed into more general American slang
meaning something like "pleasantly offbeat, out of the ordinary."
This sense probably began with the Summer of Love in the late
1960s--hippie slang.
Are there similar sorts of terms Down Under?
(Is "down under" even Australian?)
