skank

Meanings

Noun

• A lewd and disreputable person, often female, especially an unattractive person with an air of tawdry promiscuity.
• Anything that is particularly foul, unhygienic or unpleasant.
• A dance performed to ska, dub, or reggae music.
• A style of rhythmic guitar strumming in ska, reggae, and punk.
• The act of cheating a person.

Adjective

• Lewd, vulgar, skanky.

Verb

• To dance the skank.
• To play guitar with a skank rhythm.
• To be dishonest or unreliable, to defraud or deceive, to steal.
• To cheat, especially a friend.

Origin

• Origin unknown. Perhaps from skag, but the origins of skag are unknown. Compare scold, skeevy. Attested from the 1960s.
• Originally Jamaican, attested from the twentieth century, but earliest source is uncertain. The verb sense be dishonest is evidently older. Perhaps originally . The dance senses may come from a resemblance to motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic. Compare skanker.
• Slang word used in Northern England. Origin unknown. Perhaps from etymology 2, above; attested in West Indian and UK black slang from the twentieth century.