funky, adj.³ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

funky adj.³

(orig. US black)

1. soulful, elemental.

c.1900		Buddy Bolden [instrumental title] Funky Butt.
1939		R. Ellison ‘Harlem’ 4: Then we’ll be fighting it out amongst ourselves. That’ll be a funky fight. Aw hell yes! When Negroes start running things I think I’ll have to get off the earth before its too late!
1956		Down Beat 31 Oct. 17: What is funky? Oh, a sort of low-down blues feeling.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 52: Her high heels clinking away in time to some funky sounds coming from a downstairs radio.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 122: It was funky, old-fashioned nigger talk.
1986		Joe Louis Walker ‘Moanin’ News’ 🎵 And he could moan, that funky urban blues.
1999		Guardian Rev. 5 Nov. 16: His name was Prince, and he was funky.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 58: Funky [...] The dual meaning of something that smells bad and something that is essentially soulful is an interesting collision.
2010		K. Richards Life 266: It’s [i.e. ‘Honky Tonk Women’] a funky track, and dirty too.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 21: Jonah smiling like he had smoked something funky.

2. pertaining to funk music.

1959		F. Newton Jazz Scene n.p.: Critics are on the search for something a little more like the old, original, passion-laden blues; the trade name which has been suggested for it is ‘funky’ (literally ‘smelly’, i.e. symbolising the return from the upper atmosphere to the physical, down-to-earth reality) [R].
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 67: A funkier number would force Dean into the open.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 12: Coming to entertain you with a funky disco attack.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 1: It had a funky beat that sounded sweet.
2006		C.W. Ford Deuce’s Wild 7: JJ’s cell phone let out a funky, hip-hop ring tone.

3. (also funky-ass) fashionable, ‘with it’.

1968		H. Ellison ‘The Hippie-Slayer’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 103: He was for [...] funky clothes and rapping with his friends.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 229: They wore stylishly funky clothes like most young people.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 12: The room was supposed to look funky.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: funky – great, wonderful: Wow those shoes are funky.
1999		Observer Travel 3 Oct. 10: Funky buys at Borini shoes.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 19: It’s cheeky, it’s funky and it’s the top place to party.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 172: A woman, late twenties, with funky specs and a hedgehog haircut.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 82: The clothes had a certain funky cachet.

4. (US campus) weird.

1974		R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 111: Today they say the guy musta been nuts. ‘Hey man, funky dude.’ Look at you like you’re a weirdo if you do things like that.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: funky – strange, out of the ordinary.
1999		Indep. Rev. 22 July 4: A talent search for people with ‘funky pubic hair’ is being sponsored by the Irish whiskey brand Black Bush.
2003		T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 67: You see the funky colors in the masonry?

funky-ass (adj.)

see separate entry.

funky butt (n.)

(US black) an attractive woman.

1947		R. Goffin Horn of Plenty 40: Buddy Bolden was playing at Funky Butt Hall.
1971		(con. 1900s) G.M. Foster Pops Foster 18: Some bands played [...] the dance halls like the Tuxedo Dance Hall, [...] and the Funky Butt Hall.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl.

funky-butt (adj.)

funky-fresh (adj.) (also fonky fresh) [fresh adj.² (1)]

(US black) a general adj. of high praise, the most sophisticated, the smartest, the most attractive.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1998		L. Mendez-Berry ‘Maestro Slides Again’ on Eye Weekly 15 Oct. 🌐 He made hip-hop a viable commercial force in Canada by assaulting vertebrae with tight rhymes and a funky fresh bounce that kept parties pumping coast to coast.