Skank

What is the definition of the word, "skank?" Is it a combination of skunk and stank, or dank. It certainly evokes something damp, musty and vaguley unclean. When applied to a person the meaning is clear. I think I was 13 when I first heard the word, said by a white surfer-type to me on the Jersey shore...about a girl I didn't even admit I had a thing for. "She's such a SKANK." And now, 33 years later, the word is still vibrant, indeed taken on a life of its own. And other words for me: "gross" - 6th grade 1973 (I thought it was a contraction of grotesque); "excellent" - high school 1976 (it displaced "groovy" as the superlative of choice; "NOT" (as an interjection as in, "He's so cute...NOT!) - college 1980. "Awesome" in its current usage as superlative of first resort - 1985, by my youngest brother, who was born in 1969. So there's my journey through middle-class white slang of the late 20th century. The point is that most slang is older than you think. For example, the southern terms, "redneck" and "cracker" actually arose in England, long before a white man ever set foot in good ol' Dixie.