[Ads-l] janky (1989)

[Jonathan Lighter]

You'll have observed that "janky-ass" in the quote needn't have anything to
do with luck.

JL


On Fri, Sep 6, 2019 at 1:34 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Cf. the book-title,
> White Privilege: Jank or Injustice?: Little Language Lexicon of How ...
> https://books.google.com › books
> S.G. Brown - 2018 - ‎Education
>
> Unfortunately, the book does not define _jank_.
>
> I'm familiar with _jank_ only as the alternate name used for the joker in
> various versions of the card-game, whist. in which it is the most powerful
> card, more powerful than the most powerful "cutter" or trump-card. I once
> hypothesized that _jank_ might be a BE variant of "jinx," since the joker
> is a jinx for whoever - or should that be "whomever"? - isn't holding it.
> However, I have never heard _jinx_ pronounced as "jank" by anyone. either
> in the wild or on a record.
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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