Obs. Also 4 fonk, 4–7 funke, 7 founck. [Corresponds to MDu. vonke (Du. vonk), OHG. funcho (MHG. vunke, mod.Ger. funke) wk. masc., spark; the Eng. word may have been adapted from Du., or it may represent an OE. *funca. The existence of the ablaut-var. MHG. vanke, mod.Ger. dial. fanke, renders it unlikely that the word is a diminutive of the sb. represented in Goth. by fôn (gen. funins) fire.]
1. A spark. (The sense in the quots. from R. Brunne is quite uncertain.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 172. Þat was not worth a fonk. Ibid., 211. Þe kyng an oth suore, He suld him venge on Steuen … & of þo fourtene monkes … Be beten alle fonkes.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 18. Of lust that ilke firy funke Hath made hem as who saith half wode.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 335. For al the wrecchednesse of this worlde and wicked dedes Fareth as a fonk of fuyr that ful a-myde Temese.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 182/2. Funke or lytylle fyyr, igniculus, foculus.
2. Touch-wood. Cf. PUNK, SPUNK.
1673. [see 3].
1704. E. Ward, Dissenting Hypocrite, 35. Burn it as Funk, or keep ’t as Fodder.
1721. Bailey, Funk, a fungy Excrescence of some Trees dress’d to strike Fire on.
1754. Gooch, in Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 817. They gather an excrescence, growing … upon oaks, and call it Funk, which impregnated with nitre, is used as a match to light pipes.
a. 1825. in Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Funk, touch-wood.
3. Comb., as funk horn, ? a horn case containing touchwood.
1673. Channon, in Col. St. Papers, Amer. & W. Ind. (1889), 538. A flint and ‘founck horn,’ which a man had put in his pocket the day before to strike fire in the night.
