dank

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See also: Dank and -dank

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English danke (“wet, damp; dampness, moisture”), probably from North Germanic, related to Swedish dank (“marshy spot”), Icelandic dökk (“pool”), Old Norse dǫkk (“pit, depression”), from Proto-Germanic *dankwaz (“dark”). However, some trace it to a West Germanic source such as Dutch damp (“vapor”) or Middle High German damph, both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dampaz (“smoke, steam, vapor”).[1][2][3]

Adjective

dank (comparative danker, superlative dankest)

  1. Dark, damp and humid.
    The dank cave was chilly and spooky.
    • 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:
      Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire.
    • 1835, Richard Chenevix Trench, The Story of Justin Martyr:
      Cheerless watches on the cold, dank ground.
    • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXII:
      Who were the strugglers, what war did they wage, / Whose savage trample thus could pad the dank / Soil to a plash? [...]
    • 2022 November 30, Nick Brodrick, “Pride and innovation shine at St Pancras”, in RAIL, number 971, page 69:
      It's a world away from the dank and uninviting St Pancras that British Rail wanted to tear down in the 1960s.
  2. (figuratively, of marijuana) Moist and sticky, (by extension) highly potent.
    That was dank bud.
  3. (slang, often ironic) Great, awesome.
    • 2018, January 5, Rick Wilson, “Bannon Banished for Telling Truths About Trump as MAGA Monsters Turn on Each Other”, in The Daily Beast‎[1]:
      His house organ Breitbart and a host of Trump-right websites and news outlets sang praises to his dank genius.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

dank (uncountable)

  1. Moisture; humidity; water.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Yet oft they quit | The dank, and rising on siff pennons, tow'r | the mid aerial sky
  2. (slang) Strong, high-quality cannabis.
    • 2015, Scott Jacques, Richard Wright, Code of the Suburb, page 9:
      Smoking mids will get you about three times higher than shwag, and same for dank—it'll be about six times higher than smoking some mids.

Etymology 2

From Middle English danken, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

dank (third-person singular simple present danks, present participle danking, simple past and past participle danked)

  1. (obsolete, intransitive) To moisten, dampen; used of mist, dew etc.

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
  2. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959) “669”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 669
  3. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “dank”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Etymology 3

Alternative forms

Noun

dank (plural danks)

  1. (historical) A small silver coin formerly used in Persia.

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch danc, from Old Dutch *thank, from Proto-Germanic *þankaz.

Noun

dank m (uncountable)

  1. gratitude, thanks
  2. show/token of recognition
  3. reward, recompense
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Negerhollands: dank, danki, daṅki
  • → Papiamentu: danki
  • → Sranan Tongo: danki, tangi

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

dank

  1. inflection of danken:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

German

Etymology

Cognate with danken and Dutch dank; compare the Latin grātia.

Pronunciation

Preposition

dank [with genitive or (formerly) dative]

  1. thanks to, because of
    Dank seiner Arbeit hat er genug Geld zum Leben.
    Thanks to his work he has enough money to live.

Usage notes

  • Dank used to be more common with the dative, but today the genitive is more predominant.[1][2]
  • Personal pronouns, however, normally take the dative, although the genitive is possible in very elevated usage.

References

  1. ^ dank des, dank dem at the Google Ngram Viewer.
  2. ^ dank eines, dank einem at the Google Ngram Viewer.

Further reading

  • “dank” in Duden online
  • “dank” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

Noun

dank m inan

  1. tax, fine, levy, duty

Declension

Declension of dank
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative dank danka danki
Genitive danka dankowu dankow
Dative dankoju dankoma dankam
Accusative dank danka danki
Instrumental dankom dankoma dankami
Locative danku dankoma dankach

Further reading

  • Starosta, Manfred (1999) “dank”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

Luxembourgish

Verb

dank

  1. second-person singular imperative of danken
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