- skunk (n.)
- 1630s, squunck, from a southern New England Algonquian language (probably Abenaki) seganku, from Proto-Algonquian */šeka:kwa/, from */šek-/ "to urinate" + */-a:kw/ "fox." As an insult, attested from 1841. Skunk cabbage is attested from 1751; earlier skunkweed (1738).
- skunk (v.)
- "to completely defeat (in a game), to shut out from scoring," 1831, from skunk (n.). Related: Skunked; skunking.
