heller!

the origin of ‘funk’

funky has its semantic roots in the Kikongo word “lu-fuki”, which means “bad body odor”. He says: “Both jazzmen and Bakongo use funky and lu-fuki to praise persons for the integrity of their art, for having ‘worked out’ to achieve their aims” supposedly meant to signify “the irradiation of positive energy of a person. Hence ‘funk’ in American jazz parlance can mean earthiness, a return to fundamentals”