different between valour vs spunk

English

Alternative forms

• valor

Etymology

From Middle English valour, from Anglo-Norman valour, from Latin valor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?væl?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?væl?/
• Rhymes: -æl?(?)

Noun

valour (usually uncountable, plural valours) (British spelling)

1. Value; worth.
2. Strength of mind in regard to danger; the quality which enables a person to encounter danger with firmness

   Synonyms: bravery, courage, prowess, intrepidity

3. (dated) A brave man; a man of valour.

Derived terms

• discretion is the better part of valour

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• louvar, ovular

Old French

Noun

valour f (oblique plural valours, nominative singular valour, nominative plural valours)

1. Late Anglo-Norman spelling of valur
   • Flatour est un soubtil enchanteour;
     Car par son vein enchantement
     Fait croire au dame et au seignour
     Que sur tous autres de valour
     Sont plus digne et plus excellent.

     Flattery is a subtle enchanter,
     For by its vain enchantment
     It makes damsels and lords alike believe
     That above all other valorous people
     Are more worthy and more excellent.

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