heart, mettle, nerve, spunk
(noun) the courage to carry on; “he kept fighting on pure spunk”; “you haven’t got the heart for baseball”
kindling, tinder, touchwood, spunk, punk
(noun) material for starting a fire
Source: WordNet® 3.1
spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)
(countable, obsolete) A spark.
(uncountable) Touchwood; tinder.
(countable, chiefly, Scotland, obsolete) A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match.
(uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
(countable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person (normally male).
Synonyms: Adonis, beefcake, hunk
(uncountable, chiefly, UK, vulgar, slang) Semen.
spunk (third-person singular simple present spunks, present participle spunking, simple past and past participle spunked)
(intransitive, obsolete) To catch fire; flame up.
(slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.
• punks
Source: Wiktionary
Spunk (spûnk), n. Etym: [Gael. spong, or Ir. sponc, tinder, sponge; cf. AS. sponge a sponge (L. spongia), spon a chip. Cf. Sponge, Punk.] [Written also sponk.]
1. Wood that readily takes fire; touchwood; also, a kind of tinder made from a species of fungus; punk; amadou. Sir T. Browne.
2. An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk. [Colloq.] A lawless and dangerous set, men of spunk, and spirit, and power, both of mind and body. Prof. Wilson.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
28 May 2025
(noun) a distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person or thing; “an air of mystery”; “the house had a neglected air”; “an atmosphere of defeat pervaded the candidate’s headquarters”; “the place had an aura of romance”
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
