Past tense of begunk; to cover or smear with gunk or sticky, unpleasant substance.
Be- (causative prefix) + gunk (possibly from gun residue or nautical tar-like substances). The 'be-' prefix in English makes verbs from nouns, often meaning 'to cause to be' or 'to cover with.'
The 'be-' prefix is incredibly productive in English—speakers use it to create new verbs spontaneously (like 'bejazzled'), and 'begunk' shows how this ancient Old English prefix still lets us invent vivid verbs when plain words won't do.
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