skunk

See also: Skunk

English

A striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skʌŋk/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

Etymology 1

From an unattested Southern New England Algonquian word, cognate with Abenaki segôgw, segonku (“he who squirts (musk) / urinates”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa, from *šek- (“to urinate”).

Noun

skunk (plural skunks)

1. Any of various small mammals, of the family Mephitidae, native to North and Central America, having a glossy black with a white coat and two musk glands at the base of the tail for emitting a noxious smell as a defensive measure.
   • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, pages 22–23:

     The beaſts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, vvhoſe impudence ſometimes drives them to the good vvives Hen rooſt, to fill their Paunch: ſome of theſe be blacke; their furre is of much eſteeme.

2. (slang, derogatory) A despicable person.
3. (slang) A walkover victory in sports or board games, as when the opposing side is unable to score.

   Coordinate term: shutout

4. (cribbage) A win by 30 or more points. (A double skunk is 60 or more, a triple skunk 90 or more.)

Derived terms

• drunk as a skunk
• skunk at a garden party
• skunky

Descendants

• → Czech: skunk
• → Danish: skunk
• → German: Skunk
• → Finnish: skunkki
• → French: skunks
• → Icelandic: skunkur
• → Japanese: スカンク (sukanku)
• → Norwegian: skunk
• → Polish: skunks
• → Russian: скунс (skuns)
• → Slovak: skunk
• → Swedish: skunk

Translations

animal

• Abenaki: segôgw
• Albanian: qelbës (sq) m
• Algonquin: cigàg
• Apache:

  Western Apache: golízhi

• Arabic: ظَرِبَان m (ẓaribān)

  Hijazi Arabic: ظِرْبان m (ḍirbān)

• Arapaho: xoo, xou
• Arikara: níwit
• Armenian: սկունս (hy) (skuns), ժանտաքիս (hy) (žantakʻis)
• Atakapa: šikitiš
• Ayautla Mazatec: tjiuxikja
• Aymara: añuthaya
• Azerbaijani: skuns, iyverən porsuq, qoxarca
• Basque: mofeta (eu)
• Belarusian: скунс m (skuns)
• Breton: skoñs m
• Bulgarian: скункс m (skunks)
• Carrier: hoonliz
• Catalan: mofeta (ca) f
• Cebuano: milô
• Cherokee: ᏗᎳ (dila)
• Cheyenne: xāō'o
• Chickasaw: koni
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 臭鼬 (cau³ jau⁶)

  Mandarin: 臭鼬 (zh) (chòuyòu)

• Chitimacha: kištˀeˀe
• Choctaw: konih
• Comanche: pohniʔatsi̱
• Cree: ᓯᑳᐠ (sikaak)
• Creek: kono
• Czech: skunk (cs) m
• Danish: skunk c, stinkdyr n
• Dogrib: nǫtsı̨
• Dutch: stinkdier (nl) n
• Erzya: чинебача (čińebača)
• Esperanto: mefito
• Estonian: skunk (et), vinuk
• Faroese: stinkdýr n
• Finnish: haisunäätä (fi), skunkki (fi)
• Fox: shekâkwa
• French: mouffette (fr) f, sconse (fr) m, putois (fr) m
• Galician: mofeta (gl) f
• Georgian: სკუნსი (sḳunsi), მყრალა (mq̇rala)
• German: Stinktier (de) n, Skunk (de) m
• Greek: μεφίτιδα (el) f (mefítida)
• Gros Ventre: θouu
• Guaraní: jaguane
• Hawaiian: ponī
• Hebrew: בּוּאֵשׁ m (boesh)
• Hindi: स्कंक (hi) m (skaṅk)
• Hungarian: bűzösborz
• Icelandic: skunkur m
• Ido: mofeto (io)
• Indonesian: sigung (id)
• Ineseño: taxama
• Interlingua: moffetta, skunk
• Irish: scúnc f
• Isthmus Zapotec: beʼteʼ
• Italian: moffetta (it) f, puzzola (it) f
• Japanese: スカンク (ja) (sukanku)
• Kashaya: nupʰeˑ
• Kazakh: сасықиісті (sasyqiıstı)
• Kickapoo: sekaakwa
• Korean: 스컹크 (ko) (seukeongkeu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kyrgyz: сасык кашкулак (sasık kaşkulak)
• Lakota: maká
• Lao: ພຽງພອນເໝັນ (phīang phǭn men), ແມວຂົ້ວໂລກ (mǣu khūa lōk), ມູເຟັດ (mū fet), ສະກັງ (sa kang)
• Latvian: skunkss m
• Lithuanian: skunkas m
• Macedonian: твор m (tvor)
• Malay: skunk
• Manx: breinnag
• Maricopa: milxwe
• Menominee: seka·k
• Mi'kmaq: apigjilu anim, apugjilu anim
• Miami: šikaakwa
• Mingrelian: სკუნსი (sḳunsi)
• Mohegan-Pequot: skôks
• Mongolian: өмхий хүрэн (ömxii xüren)
• Nahuatl: epatl (nah), yepatl (nah)
• Nanticoke: laa!waa!quepuss
• Natchez: šic
• Navajo: gólízhii
• Nawathinehena: saoθ
• Neapolitan: cajorda f
• Norwegian: skunk m, stinkdyr n
• Obispeño: tqema
• Ojibwe: zhigaag
• Pashto: ژګاګ (ps) (žigâg)
• Pawnee: ríwit
• Plains Apache: dookats’į́łtshesá
• Polish: skunks (pl) m
• Portuguese: cangambá m, gambá (pt) m, doninha fedorenta f (Portugal)
• Quapaw: mą́ka
• Quechua: añas (qu)
• Romanian: sconcs (ro) m
• Romansch: scunc m
• Russian: скунс (ru) m (skuns), воню́чка (ru) f (vonjúčka)
• Salinan: šowá
• San Jerónimo Tecóatl Mazatec: xíkjá
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: твор m

  Roman: tvor (sh) m

• Seri: sliitxcoj
• Shona: chidembo
• Shuswap: sts̓ípeq
• Slovak: skunk m
• Slovene: dihur (sl) m
• Southern Ohlone: yaawi (big)
• Spanish: mofeta (es) f (Spain), zorro hediondo m (Costa Rica), zorrillo (es) m (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua), chingue (es) (Chile)
• Swahili: kinyegere class 7/8
• Swedish: skunk (sv) c
• Taos: kùylulúna
• Thai: สกังก์ (sà-gáng)
• Tibetan: ཏེ་ལོ (te lo)
• Turkish: kokarca (tr)
• Ukrainian: скунс m (skuns)
• Unami: shkakw
• Uyghur: سېسىق كۈزەن (sësiq küzen)
• Uzbek: kokarca (uz), skuns, sassiq koʻzani
• Ventureño: taxama
• Vietnamese: chồn hôi
• Welsh: drewgi m
• Western Ojibwa: sikāk
• Wolof: jab bi
• Yiddish: טכויר m (tkhoyr)
• Yokuts:

  Buena Vista Yokuts: (Tulamni, Hometwoli)

  Southern Valley Yokuts: (Yawelmani)

• Zazaki: boyınce, boyğanık

despicable person

• Finnish: hylkiö (fi)
• French: salaud (fr) m, mufle (fr) m, canaille (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: camelo (pt) m
• Russian: подле́ц (ru) m (podléc), негодя́й (ru) m (negodjáj), мерза́вец (ru) m (merzávec)

skunkweed — see marijuana

walkover victory

• Finnish: murskavoitto (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: cappotto (it) m

Verb

skunk (third-person singular simple present skunks, present participle skunking, simple past and past participle skunked)

1. (transitive, slang) To defeat so badly as to prevent any opposing points.

   I skunked him at cards.

   We fished all day but the lake skunked us.

2. (cribbage) To win by 30 or more points.
3. (intransitive, of beer) To go bad, to spoil.

See also

• Mephitis
• Spilogale
• Conepatus
• polecat

Etymology 2

Blend of skinhead +‎ punk, influenced by the animal (Etymology 1).

Noun

skunk (plural skunks)

1. A member of a hybrid skinhead and punk subculture.
   • 2006, Pam Nilan, Carles Feixa, Global Youth?: Hybrid Identities, Plural Worlds (page 192)

     In the early 1980s, certain ex-punks joined them, becoming 'skunks' – a hybrid subculture of skinheads and punks.

   • 2011, Gerard DeGroot (quoting Brown), Seventies Unplugged

     […] mods, skins, suedes, smoothies, punks, skunks, rude boys, soul boys and headbangers […]

Etymology 3

From skunkweed (“certain highly aromatic marijuana”).

Noun

skunk (countable and uncountable, plural skunks)

1. (slang) Clipping of skunkweed (marijuana).
2. Any of the strains of hybrids of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica that may have THC levels exceeding those of typical hashish.

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Czech

Noun

1. skunk (animal)

Further reading

• Template:R:PSJC
• Template:R:SSJC

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English skunk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skʏŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: skunk

Noun

skunk m (uncountable)

1. skunk, weed with a high level of THC

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Swedish

Noun

skunk c

1. a skunk

Declension

Declension of skunk

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	skunk	skunks
	definite	skunken	skunkens
plural	indefinite	skunkar	skunkars
	definite	skunkarna	skunkarnas