To add to the difficulties and dangers of the time, masses of sea-fog
came drifting inland. White, wet clouds, which swept by in ghostly
fashion, so dank and damp and cold that it needed but little effort of
imagination to think that the spirits of those lost at sea were touching
their living brethren with the clammy hands of death, and many a one
shuddered at the wreaths of sea-mist swept by.
Dracula Chapter 7 by Bram Stoker
Dave
On 17/02/2015 17:03, Jez Cunningham wrote:
I disagree with you Chuck :-) - that's the (small) number of people
(slightly) misusing the word.
Searching examples of correct usage "the * was dank" gets 91 million hits.
Jez, in a glass dankly.
On 17 February 2015 at 16:53, Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I strongly disagree. Whether you or the teacher use it that way or not I
do, just like Charlie and lots of other people as well. Search Google with
this quoted phrase "the weather is dank" and you'll get 2,370 hits.
Language is ultimately based on usage and not the dictionary.
Chuck Norcutt
On 2/17/2015 10:42 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
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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