Talk:wonk
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[edit]Suggest meanings 2 and 3 be replaced or supplemented by the following from Wikipedia: "Wonk, slang for a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field"
Example: (Newspaper subtitle from the 1/31/08 Globe and Mail-Globe T.O. section) "Why our city is the latest hot spot for geeks, wonks and web junkies."
I can find various discussions of the origin of this word elsewhere -- which by extension basically also means nothing definitive. But the other day, for no apparent reason, I came up with a possible better explanation for one theory I have seen. Could "wonk" not only be an anagram and reversal of "know", but actually be derived from its reported anagram? Could it be simply a word that was invented to describe someone who knows a subject backwards and forwards? jalp --209.172.13.114 16:35, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
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[edit]Is this word still "derogatory"? Its usage seems to have matured. Should this be changed? — This unsigned comment was added by 54.243.239.105 (talk).
wonk as verb
[edit]Use: to wonk, I am wonking (thing [usually inanimate]). A portmanteau of the sound of hitting something. Compare to whack it thwack. Similar to use as wollop.
Usage: Give it a good wonk.
Someone please tell me that I'm not the only one who has never heard wonk being used in the manor of the official definition as a noun, and only heard it as the above listed way, as a verb.
Rhinorulz (talk) 05:47, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
I noticed the autocorrect got me.the end of the first section of my previous post should read "Compare to whack OR thwack. ..." Rhinorulz (talk) 05:53, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
On the wonk
[edit]Modern british slang. An adjectival phrase in use in England derived from the adjective "wonky". That something is "on the wonk" means that it is not level, probably because it is on a slope. A table could be "on the wonk" because it is on an uneven floor, even though the table may not be "wonky" (lopsided) in itself.151.170.240.200 13:56, 1 March 2021 (UTC)