Word: spunk Part of Speech: noun Etymology: 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”). Pronunciation: /spʌŋk/ 1. A spark. Labels: countable, obsolete, usually Example: "[...] That's none such an entirely bad little man, yon little man with the red head," said Alan. "He has some spunks of decency." Example: He […] took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox, sprang it open too, and, having lit his cigarette, held the flaming spunk towards Stephen in the shell of his hands. 2. Touchwood; tinder. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red. Example: A piece of Touch-wood (which is a kind of Jews-ear, or Mushrom, growing here in England also, on several sorts of Trees, such as Elders, Maples, Willows, &c. and is commonly call'd by the name of Spunk[…]). 3. Synonym of taper, a thin stick used for transferring flames, especially a sulfur match. Labels: UK, countable, obsolete, usually Example: 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. Example: “Spunks — spunks — spunks — who will buy my spunks?” — cried an errant voice with a beseeching earnestness[…]. 4. Synonym of match, a thin chemically-treated stick used for creating flames. Labels: Scotland, countable, obsolete, usually Example: ... the old sulphur match was intended, not to produce fire, but to convey fire from the tinder to the candle... The vernacular name for sulphur matches was "spunks", and even in some of the country districts of Scotland the name has descended to modern matches. 5. Courage; spirit; mettle; determination. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: 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. Example: “I reckon I′m as good as a mule,” he declared. “Maria knows what that desert is as well as we do, but she′s got more spunk than either of us. I'm not going to let any mule show more spunk than me.” 6. An attractive person; a good-looker. Labels: Australia, New-Zealand, UK, countable, slang, usually Example: 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. Example: We are welcomed by 20 year old spunks, as we make a last valiant attempt with our bodies - gasp, gasp - and try to get back in shape. 7. Semen. Labels: UK, slang, uncountable, usually, vulgar Example: 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. Example: Between spunk-stained sheet and odorous whim Camera eye-flick-shudder within