I can't improve on Bob's explanation, I too think of "dank" as applying to
an enclosed space, not weather. Except that dankness could apply to weather
which is cold, dark and damp precisely because it has the same sense of
enclosure.
I disagree with the teacher. But them teachers are not infallible. I still
remember a substitute teacher chalking up "jeapardy" on the blackboard. I
thought it should have been "jeopardy" but what did I know? Come the
spelling test the next week with the usual teacher I dutifully followed the
example set, and like every one of my classmates got it wrong. Of course.
That was a lesson well learned and still heeded 51 years later!
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus
[mailto:olympus-bounces+piers.hemy=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Bob Whitmire
Sent: 17 February 2015 15:43
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] [OT] Proper Word Use
The dictionary that pops up when I highlight a word on my Mac says for dank:
dank |daNGk| adjective
disagreeably damp, musty, and typically cold.
DERIVATIVES
dankly adverb.
dankness noun
ORIGIN Middle English: probably ofScandinavian origin and related to
Swedishdank ‘marshy spot.’
I tend to think of some basements as being dank. Seldom, if ever, have I
used the word as a direct description of weather. In days gone by during my
youthful explorations of the mountains of Western North Carolina, I might
have escaped a maddening and ongoing drizzle by ducking into a natural rock
shelter. The shelter might be dank, musty, etc., but not the weather outside
it. Hope this is slightly clearer than mud. I do think that if I saw the
above mentioned adverb— dankly—I might collapse with laughter, which, I
suspect, would not be what the writer intended.
But then I’m not sure I would have subtracted points from a pupil’s paper
for using it as your daughter did. Instead, I might have written a note in
the margin explaining distinctions as I understood them.
—Bob Whitmire
Certified Neanderthal
On Feb 17, 2015, at 9:58 AM, Charles Geilfuss <charles.geilfuss@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> I am seeking information on the proper use of a word. I have exhausted
> the dictionaries at home and found no help with online versions. In
> desperation I turn to the vast depository of English language knowledge
> that resides in the OM List.
> One of my children recently took a vocabulary test at school. The word in
> question is "dank". I don't know the exact wording of the sentence she
used
> to demonstrate its usage, but something to the effect of "The weather is
> dank". The teacher subtracted points, writing in the margin that weather
> cannot be dank. This came as a surprise to me. Certainly other things can
> be dank: clammy hands, humid air, etc. I live in South Carolina where the
> weather is often dank. What am I missing here?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Charlie
> --
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