Present participle of 'funk,' meaning to avoid something through fear or cowardice, or (in music) to create or play funk music.
From the verb 'funk,' which originally meant to shrink back in fear (17th century Oxford slang), later applied to music as a verb form.
Oxford students in the 1600s created the slang word 'funk' to mean fear, and it eventually evolved to describe a whole music genre—that's how living language constantly reinvents itself!
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