different between wonky vs wonkish

English

Etymology 1

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w???.k?/
• (US) enPR: w?ng?k?, IPA^(key): /?w??.ki/, /?w??.ki/
• Rhymes: -??ki

Adjective

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

1. Lopsided, misaligned or off-centre.

   Synonyms: awry, lonkie, misaligned, skew-whiff

2. (chiefly Britain, Australia, New Zealand) Feeble, shaky or rickety.

   Synonym: rickety
3. (informal, computing, especially Usenet) Suffering from intermittent bugs.

   Synonyms: buggy, broken

4. (informal) Generally incorrect.

Derived terms

• wonky hole

Noun

wonky (uncountable)

1. (music) A subgenre of electronic music employing unstable rhythms, complex time signatures, and mid-range synths.
   • 2015, Jan Kyrre Berg O. Friis, Robert P. Crease, Technoscience and Postphenomenology: The Manhattan Papers

     By the late 2000s, dubstep had splintered into numerous factions, from brostep to wonky to the evocative “purple,” […]

Etymology 2

wonk +? -y

Adjective

wonky (comparative wonkier, superlative wonkiest)

1. Technically worded, in the style of jargon.
   • 2009, Jesse Dale Holcomb, Faith, Science and Trust: Climate Change Framing Effects and Conservative Protestant Opinion

     Climate change is an issue that might lend itself more easily to thematic framing in the news, due to the often highly technical and wonky language required to explain it.

   • 2010, Michael Maslansky, Scott West, Gary DeMoss, David Saylor, The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics

     McCain's message, while similar in content and equally as valid, is lost in the minutiae of “'high-risk' pools” and wonky jargon.

Anagrams

• y'know

English

Etymology

wonk +? -ish

Adjective

wonkish (comparative more wonkish, superlative most wonkish)

1. (informal) Nerdy; bookish; having the qualities of a wonk.
   • 2009, Zillah Eisenstein, The Audacity of Races and Genders, Zed Books (?ISBN), page 138:

     Hillary may have been too wonkish, and Palin not wonkish enough, but they have normalized white females as political candidates for the nation.

   • 2009, Michael Muhammad Knight, Journey to the End of Islam, Soft Skull Press (?ISBN), page 207:

     Being a renegade Islamo-punk had run its course, but now I answered brothers' questions in a wonkish intellectual way, ducking and weaving around the truth claims.

Synonyms

• nerdy

Derived terms

• wonkishly

Related terms

• wonky

Anagrams

• Howkins