cank meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cank

noun

/kæŋk/

Etymology From Middle English *cank (compare Middle English cang (“foolish"; also "fool”, adj and noun) > obsolete English cank (“dumb, stupid”)), from Old English canc, ġecanc (“scorn, jeering”), from Proto-West Germanic *kank, from Proto-Germanic *kanką (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *geng-, *genǵ- (“to mock, insult”).

UK, Dialectal Gossip, chatter.

UK, Dialectal A chat.

UK, Dialectal A gossip, tell-tale.

UK, Dialectal The cry of a goose.

UK, Dialectal A fit of ill-humour.

cank

verb

UK, Dialectal To gossip, prate, chatter.

He said that what he had told me wasn't meant to be repeated again, and I ought not to have gone canking it about, especially to the Rymers theirselves^([sic]); […]1880, Ellen Wood, Johnny Ludlow, volume 1, page 67:

UK, Dialectal To talk rapidly; gabble.

UK, Dialectal To cackle, as geese.