Skanks

[Jonathon Green]

> "Skanking" as a dance form may be unrelated. I don't know much about this
> but maybe the word is related to "ska"?
> 
According to Allsopp Dict. Caribbean English Usage (1996) 510/2:

skank 1 (scank) [skat)k] vb [A(nti)F(ormal)] 1. To loaf, be shifty; [by extension] to use cunning or deceit to outwit sb or to get sth done; to steal and slip or speed away. 2. [By extension] To dance in the particular free style associated with DUB or REGGAE. `I dub I scrub all the days of my life, in the house of the Lord, Jah Rastafari' goes one line of the song, and whenever Clark goes into that catchy line it is a treat to see how the kids start 'skanking' and stomping to a beat and a song they have made in the last few weeks their own reggae 'anthem'.-WeS ('74.06.07, p.20) [Perh orig an echoic word. Sense i. is evid older and said by some to be associated with motorbike getaways; sense 2. is derived from the kind of hip-swinging dancing wh is both typical of people of generally low social status and reminiscent of the waist movements of a motor-cyclist speeding in and out of other traffic. Note SKANKER] o The term in sense 2. has spread beyond Jmca.


skank 2 (scank) n (Jmca) A free-style individual dance with a partner, to DUB or REGGAE Music. (See cit). Skank, the new dance / Reggae is on its way out. / As the replacement, local producers are introducing the Skank. / The Skank is boundless, having no limits to what the dancer wishes to do with his body or the scope allowed himself and his partner. / The drums boom, bang and roll, while the heavy bass keeps the rhythm. The dancer, according to his mood, can rock slowly to the bass, or go all out and skank to the drums.-WeG (73.01.24, P-13) [By functional vb > n shift of SKANK 1 2.]

skanker n (Jmca) A deceitful, untrustworthy person; a dissolute man. But please make sure you're not a skanker out to give worries. I don't want you spoiling up my track record and get me in kass-kass.-WeG (73.07.11, p.13, Partyline) [ < vb SKANK 1 i. + SE agential suff -er)



Jonathon Green