different between hardiness vs spunk

English

Etymology

hardy +? -ness

Noun

hardiness (countable and uncountable, plural hardinesses)

1. The quality of being hardy.
   1. The quality of being able to withstand fatigue and hardship; (of a plant) the quality of being resistant to cold or other environmental conditions.
      • 1642, John Milton, An apology against a pamphlet call’d A modest confutation of the animadversions upon the remonstrant against Smectymnuus, London: John Rothwell, p. 13,^[1]

        […] with usefull and generous labours preserving the bodies health, and hardinesse; to render lightsome, cleare, and not lumpish obedience to the minde,

      • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, London: Benjamin Motte, Volume 2, Part 4, Chapter 8, p. 284,^[2]

        But the Houyhnhnms train up their Youth to Strength, Speed, and Hardiness, by exercising them in running Races up and down steep Hills, and over hard and stony Grounds […]

      • 1915, Nellie McClung, In Times Like These, Toronto: McLeod & Allen, Chapter 4,^[3]

        Wild wheat is small and hard, quite capable of looking after itself, but its heads contain only a few small kernels. Cultivated wheat has lost its hardiness and its self-reliance, but its heads are filled with large kernels which feed the nation.

   2. (obsolete) The quality of being bold in the face of risk or authority.

      Synonyms: hardihood, audacity, boldness, firmness, assurance

      • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act III, Scene 6,^[4]

        Plenty and peace breeds cowards: hardness ever

        Of hardiness is mother.

      • 1702, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion, Oxford, 1732, Volume 1, Book 5, p. 153,^[5]

        […] they who were not yet grown to the hardiness of Avowing the contempt of the King […] would sooner have been checked, and recovered their Loyalty and Obedience.

      • 1856, John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume 3, Part 4, Chapter 6, § 6,^[6]

        […] for every sorrow that his heart turned from, he lost a consolation; for every fear which he dared not confront, he lost a portion of his hardiness; the unsceptred sweep of the storm-clouds, the fair freedom of glancing shower and flickering sunbeam, sank into sweet rectitudes and decent formalisms;

2. (obsolete) Hardship; fatigue.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, in The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, London: Jacob Tonson, 1715, Volume 6, p. 1577,^[7]

     Yet sure they are very valiant, and hardy, for the most part great Indurers of Cold, Labour, Hunger, and all Hardiness […]

Translations

See also

• foolhardiness
• hardness

Anagrams

• shandries

English

Etymology

1530, blend of spark +? funk (obsolete, “spark”). Also, merging with spunck, 1582, ultimately from Old Irish sponc, from Latin spongia (“sponge”).

Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funce (“spark”), *fanca, from Proto-Germanic *funkô, *fankô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng-, *(s)pheng- (“to shine”), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Noun

spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)

1. (countable, obsolete) A spark.
2. (uncountable) Touchwood; tinder.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

     Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red.

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, XXII:

     A piece of Touch-wood (which is a kind of Jews-ear, or Mushrom, growing here in England also, on several sorts of Trees, such as Elders, Maples, Willows, &c. and is commonly call'd by the name of Spunk […]).

3. (countable, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match.
   • 1829, Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick (Edinburgh), Report, page 7,

     At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door.

   • 1843, John Wilson, John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg, The Noctes Ambrosianæ of “Blackwood”, Volume IV, page 396,

     “Spunks — spunks — spunks — who will buy my spunks?” — cried an errant voice with a beseeching earnestness […] .

4. (uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
   • 1920 August, Edward Leonard, Old Zeke?s Mule, Boys? Life, 55,

     “I reckon I?m as good as a mule,” he declared. “Maria knows what that desert is as well as we do, but she?s got more spunk than either of us. I'm not going to let any mule show more spunk than me.”

   • 1991, Lindsey Hanks, (copyright Linda Chesnutt, Georgia Pierce), Long Texas Night, Zebra Books, US, page 26,

     “You've got spunk, missy, I?ll have to say that for you. Maybe with your spunk and my good looks we can get this place in shape again.”

     It was Sarah?s turn to laugh.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:spunk.
5. (countable, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person (normally male).

   Synonyms: Adonis, beefcake, hunk

   • 2005, Sue Austin, Women?s Aggressive Fantasies: A Post-Jungian Exploration of Self-Hatred, Love and Agency, Routledge, UK, page 166,

     We are welcomed by 20 year old spunks, as we make a last valiant attempt with our bodies - gasp, gasp - and try to get back in shape.

6. (uncountable, chiefly Britain, vulgar, slang) Semen.
   • 2007, Debra Hyde, Kidnapped, Violet Blue (editor), Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 188,

     It was runny stuff and, as she felt Brain loosen his hold on the drawstrings, Cackle's spunk dripped onto the shelf of her chin.

Derived terms

• spunky

Translations

Verb

spunk (third-person singular simple present spunks, present participle spunking, simple past and past participle spunked)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To catch fire; flame up.
2. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.

Anagrams

• punks