Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lit. or fig. smelling very unpleasant.

1681		‘The Ladies’ March’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 57: Quelled by the fair one’s funky hose, / Even Lory’s forced to hold his nose.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 137: funky, adj. Musty. ‘It was an awful funky smell.’.
1929		N.Y. Sun. News 3 Nov. in AS VI:2 158: funkey is used to describe the odor of perspiration, as a ‘funkey old man.’.
1939		T. Wolfe Web and the Rock 28: To draw my breath in stench and sourness, breathe in the funky nigger stench.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 33: About ten sizes too big and five quarts of creosote too funky.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 96: The funky smell of stale bedclothes.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 52: Contrary to popular white belief, all of them were not dirty of funky.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 131: Man, that’s a funky place if ever I’ve smelled one.
1987		Kid ’N’ Play ‘Last Night’ 🎵 This girl was one my tip [...] But her breath was funky and it made me drowsy.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 230: In the rubble of the funky-smelling bedroom was an album of [...] photographs.
2005		A. Swartz ‘Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid’ in S.F. University High School Update Mar.–Apr. 2: fonkay – funky. ‘You smell fonkay.’.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 5: The train was funky because a bum was on it straight stinking it up. I covered my nose.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] It had always looked neat enough. No clothes or dust balls on the floor, no funky towels on the bed.