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Spunk

//spʌŋk// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun

1
A spark. countable, obsolete, usually
""[...] That's none such an entirely bad little man, yon little man with the red head," said Alan. "He has some spunks of decency.""
2
the courage to carry on wordnet
3
Touchwood; tinder. uncountable, usually
"Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red."
4
material for starting a fire wordnet
5
A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match. Scotland, countable, obsolete, usually
"At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door."

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6
Courage; spirit; mettle; determination. uncountable, usually
"1847, Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, ch 17. She showed me the letters of another individual, too, the unfortunate Mr. Green, who had not the courage, or, as she expressed it, the “spunk,” to plead his cause in person, but whom one denial would not satisfy: he must write again and again."
7
An attractive person; a good-looker. Australia, New-Zealand, UK, countable, slang, usually
"I got a transfer in my bank job and on the first day on the job in the big smoke I had to share a teller's box with a young lady called Kim, a real spunk and my future wife."
8
Semen. UK, slang, uncountable, usually, vulgar
"Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines[...] the sniveling, dribbling, dithering palsied pulse-less lot that make up England today. They've got white of egg in their veins, and their spunk is that watery it's a marvel they can breed."

Verb

1
To catch fire; flame up. intransitive, obsolete
2
To ejaculate. intransitive, slang, vulgar
"He spunked into the condom."
3
To waste (money etc.). slang, transitive, vulgar

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

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