# skunk
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /skʌŋk/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌŋk

### Etymology 1

From an unattested Southern New England Algonquian word, cognate with Abenaki segôgw, segonku (“he who squirts (musk) / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”). Doublet of Chicago.

#### Noun

skunk (plural skunks)
* Any of various small mammals, of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black with a white coat and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.
** 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, pages 22–23:The beaſts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, vvhoſe impudence ſometimes drives them to the good vvives Hen rooſt, to fill their Paunch: ſome of theſe be blacke; their furre is of much eſteeme.
* (slang, derogatory, dated) A despicable person.
* (slang, derogatory, dated) Anything very bad; a stinker.
** 1987, English Journal, volume 76, numbers 5-8, page 52:On the other hand, many critics contend that in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks.
* (slang) A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score.
    Coordinate term: shutout
* (cribbage) A win by thirty or more points. (A double skunk is sixty or more, a triple skunk ninety or more.)

##### Derived terms

* drunk as a skunk
* eastern spotted skunk
* hog-nosed skunk
* hooded skunk
* hydrophobia skunk
* knock a skunk off a gut wagon
* skunk ape
* skunk at a garden party
* skunk at the garden party
* skunk blackbird
* skunk cabbage
* skunk dolphin
* skunked term
* skunkless
* skunklike
* skunk pig
* skunk pox
* skunk tail
* skunk tree
* skunk up
* skunk works
* skunkworks
* skunky
* spotted skunk
* stink a skunk off a gut wagon
* western spotted skunk

##### Descendants

* → Czech: skunk
* → Danish: skunk
* → German: Skunk
* → Finnish: skunkki
* → French: skunks
* → Icelandic: skunkur
* → Japanese: スカンク (sukanku)
* → Kashubian: skunk (Canada, United States)
* → Norwegian: skunk
* → Polish: skunks
* → Russian: скунс (skuns)
* → Slovak: skunk
* → Swedish: skunk

##### Translations
#### Verb

skunk (third-person singular simple present skunks, present participle skunking, simple past and past participle skunked)
* (transitive, slang) To defeat so badly as to prevent any opposing points.
    I skunked him at cards.
    We fished all day but the lake skunked us.
* (cribbage) To win by thirty or more points.
* (intransitive, of beer) To go bad, to spoil.

#### See also

* Mephitis
* Spilogale
* Conepatus
* polecat

### Etymology 2

Blend of skinhead +‎ punk, influenced by the animal (Etymology 1).

#### Noun

skunk (plural skunks)
* A member of a hybrid skinhead and punk subculture.
** 2006, Pam Nilan, Carles Feixa, Global Youth?: Hybrid Identities, Plural Worlds, page 192:In the early 1980s, certain ex-punks joined them, becoming 'skunks' – a hybrid subculture of skinheads and punks.
** 2011, Gerard DeGroot (quoting Brown), Seventies Unplugged
    […] mods, skins, suedes, smoothies, punks, skunks, rude boys, soul boys and headbangers […]

### Etymology 3

From skunkweed (“certain highly aromatic marijuana”).

#### Noun

skunk (countable and uncountable, plural skunks)
* (slang) Clipping of skunkweed (marijuana).
* Any of the strains of hybrids of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica that may have THC levels exceeding those of typical hashish.

## Czech
### Noun

skunk m anim
* skunk (animal)

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “skunk”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
* “skunk”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from English skunk.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /skʏŋk/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: skunk

### Noun

skunk m (uncountable)
* skunk, weed with a high level of THC

## Kashubian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English skunk.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈskɔ̃k/
* Rhymes: -ɔ̃k
* Syllabification: skunk

### Noun

skunk m animal (female equivalent szkùnka)
* (Canada, United States) skunk

### Further reading

* Stanislow Frymark (2020) “skunk”, in Kashubian Language in Canada, the USA and New Zealand; Lexical Interferences in Kashubian Language in Canada, the USA and New Zealand, Zómk Zôbòrsczi, →ISBN

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English skunk.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /skuŋk/

### Noun

skunk c
* a skunk
    Synonym: stinkdjur

#### Declension

| | | nominative | genitive |
| singular | indefinite | skunk | skunks |
| singular | definite | skunken | skunkens |
| plural | indefinite | skunkar | skunkars |
| plural | definite | skunkarna | skunkarnas |

### References

* skunk in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* skunk in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* skunk in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)