Dank

Dank (pronounced dangk)

(1) Unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly.

(2) In slang, as dank weed, excellent; high quality marijuana.

(3) In slang, as a critique of an internet meme) passé or clichéd, out of touch; having missed the cultural moment.

(4) In slang, an adjective of generalized approval or disapproval depending on the practice of the user, the former using dank ironically, the latter literally.

(5) A small silver coin formerly used in Persia

(6) As the acronym DANK, the Deutsch Amerikanischer National Kongress (German American National Congress).

(7) As an intransitive verb, to moisten, dampen; used of mist, dew etc (obsolete).

1350-1400: From the Middle English danke (wet, damp; dampness, moisture), probably from the North Germanic and related to the Swedish dänka & dank (marshy spot), the Norwegian dynke (to moisten), the Icelandic dökk (“pool”), the Old Norse dǫkk (pit, depression; water hole), from the Proto-Germanic dankwaz (dark).  The alternative etymology traces it to the a West Germanic source such as Dutch damp (vapor) or the Middle High German damph, both ultimately from the Proto-Germanic dampaz (smoke, steam, vapor).  Dank is an adjective & noun, dankly is an adverb, dankness is a noun and danker & dankest are adjectives.  The noun plural is danks.  Dank’s niche in the language is unique but words associated with the idea include chilly, damp, humid, muggy, steamy, sticky, wet, clammy, dewy, dripping, moist, slimy & soggy

In other languages the evolution differed.  In Modern Dutch, dank (gratitude, a showing or token of recognition; reward, recompense) is from the Middle Dutch danc, from Old Dutch thank, from the Proto-Germanic þankaz.  In German, dank (thanks to, because of) was cognate with danken and the Dutch dank (and related to the Latin grātia) while in Lower Sorbian it came to mean "tax, fine, levy, duty".  In one Germanic quirk, in Luxembourgish, dank evolved as the second-person singular imperative of danken (to thank), from the Old High German thankōn, from the Proto-Germanic þankōną and cognate with the German danken, the Dutch danken, and the English thank.

Dank is also a surname.  Diana Dank (b 1989) is a Russian actress and graduate in international management from the Russian Foreign Trade Academy (Moscow).

Dank is not, as is sometimes supposed, a blend of “damp” and “dark” although, most associated with describing damp, dark basements, it’s a practical working definition although dank places are often thought of as humid too.  The seemingly curious evolution of dank as a slang term meaning either “very good” or “very bad” is actually derived from the literal meaning in the sense of “moisture” which can be bad (rising damp etc) or something good (nice moist buds of weed).  Dank weed, the much admired strain of marijuana is said to be really potent, the recommended processing involving a slow drying of the harvested plant material in a paper bag with the top folded and placed in another bag, thereby reducing exposure to light & air.  When retrieving, aficionados check to ensure it remains moist, green and sticky, the resin glands still intact and “sweating” (slightly excreting).  Dank is the sense of things in general which are good developed from here, much as “filth” as a term of approbation emerged from the sense of “dirty bitch”.