{"id":32835,"date":"2017-05-23T06:13:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T11:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=32835"},"modified":"2017-05-23T08:10:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T13:10:01","slug":"homonyms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=32835","title":{"rendered":"Homonyms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday's Dumbing of Age<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

In fact Walky is right about homonym<\/em>. The OED's overall gloss is\u00a0\"The same name or word used to denote different things\", with the more specific sense \"Philol.<\/em> Applied to words having the same sound, but differing in meaning\".<\/p>\n

Billie is right about\u00a0the etymology — for\u00a0the verb funk<\/em> \"To blow smoke upon (a person); to annoy with smoke\" the OED says<\/p>\n

Etymology: perhaps < French dialect funkier<\/em> = Old French funkier<\/em> , fungier<\/em> < Latin *f\u016bmicare<\/em> (Italian fumicare<\/em> ), f\u016bmig\u0101re<\/em> , < f\u016bmus<\/em> smoke.<\/p>\n

and adds that the noun, though apparently from this verb, is recorded earlier.<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia article for funk<\/a> music explains that<\/p>\n

The word funk<\/i> initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin \"fumigare\" (which means \"to smoke\") via Old French \"fungiere\" and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 \"funky\" meaning \"musty\" was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of \"earthy\" that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something \"deeply or strongly felt\".<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to \"get down\" by telling one another, \"Now, put some stank<\/i> on it!\". At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky<\/i>. The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered as either \"Funky Butt<\/a>\" or \"Buddy Bolden's Blues\" with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. Marquis either \"comical and light\" or \"crude and downright obscene\" but, in one way or another, referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden's band played.\u00a0As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when \"funk\" and \"funky\" were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer<\/a> \"was the first to use the word 'funky' to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable.\" The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians.\u00a0The music was identified as slow, \"sexy\", loose, riff-oriented and danceable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the exchange is not really about word senses and etymologies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday's Dumbing of Age:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linguistics-in-the-funny-papers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32836,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32835\/revisions\/32836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}