different between spunk vs resolve

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

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English resolven, from Old French resolver, a learned borrowing of Latin resolv? (“loosen, thaw, melt, resolve”), equivalent to re- +? solve.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???z?lv/, /?i??z?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv or Rhymes: -?lv
• (US) IPA^(key): /???z?lv/

Verb

resolve (third-person singular simple present resolves, present participle resolving, simple past and past participle resolved)

1. (transitive) To find a solution to (a problem).
2. (transitive) To reduce to simple or intelligible notions; to make clear or certain; to unravel; to explain.
3. (intransitive) To make a firm decision to do something.
4. (transitive) To determine or decide in purpose; to make ready in mind; to fix; to settle.

5. To come to an agreement or make peace; patch up relationship, settle differences, bury the hatchet.

6. (transitive, intransitive, reflexive) To break down into constituent parts; to decompose; to disintegrate; to return to a simpler constitution or a primeval state.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     Ye immortal souls, who once were men, / And now resolved to elements again.
7. To cause to perceive or understand; to acquaint; to inform; to convince; to assure; to make certain.
   • 1596, Walter Raleigh, The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden city of Manoa

     In health, good air, pleasure, riches, I am resolved it cannot be equalled by any region.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     She was proceeding in this manner when the surgeon entered the room. The lieutenant immediately asked how his patient did. But he resolved him only by saying, "Better, I believe, than he would have been by this time, if I had not been called; and even as it is, perhaps it would have been lucky if I could have been called sooner."

8. (music) To cause a chord to go from dissonance to consonance.
9. (optics) To render visible or distinguishable the parts of something.
10. (computing) To find the IP address of a hostname, or the entity referred to by a symbol in source code; to look up.
11. (rare, transitive) To melt; to dissolve; to liquefy or soften (a solid).
12. (rare, intransitive, reflexive) To melt; to dissolve; to become liquid.
    • 1730, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments

      When the blood stagnates in any part, it first coagulates, then resolves, and turns alkaline.

13. (obsolete, transitive) To liquefy (a gas or vapour).
14. (medicine, dated) To disperse or scatter; to discuss, as an inflammation or a tumour.
15. (obsolete) To relax; to lay at ease.
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter

      resolve himself into all sports and looseness again

16. (chemistry) To separate racemic compounds into their enantiomers.
17. (mathematics, archaic, transitive) To solve (an equation, etc.).

Derived terms

• resolvable
• resolver

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “resolve”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Noun

resolve (countable and uncountable, plural resolves)

1. Determination; will power.

   It took all my resolve to go through with the surgery.
2. A determination to do something; a fixed decision.
   • 1995, William Arctander O'Brien, Novalis, Signs of Revolution (page 56)

     His resolve to die is weakening as he grows accustomed to Sophie's absence, and all his attempts to master irresolution only augment it.

3. (countable) An act of resolving something; resolution.
   • 2008, Matt Lombard, SolidWorks 2007 Bible (page 956)

     Some operations require data that, in turn, requires that lightweight components be resolved. In these cases, this option determines whether the user is prompted to approve the resolve or whether components are just resolved automatically.

Synonyms

• fortitude, inner strength, resoluteness, sticktoitiveness, tenacity

Translations

See also

• set of one's jaw

Etymology 2

re- +? solve

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?i?s?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv
• (US) IPA^(key): /?i?s?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv

Verb

resolve (third-person singular simple present resolves, present participle resolving, simple past and past participle resolved)

1. (transitive) To solve again.

Translations

Anagrams

• reloves

Italian

Verb

resolve

1. third-person singular present indicative of resolvere

Anagrams

• solvere, svelerò, svolere

Latin

Verb

resolve

1. second-person singular present active imperative of resolv?

Portuguese

Verb

resolve

1. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você^?) present indicative of resolver
2. Second-person singular (tu) affirmative imperative of resolver