skanking

n

a swinging and jerking style of dancing characteristic of reggae and the 'two-tone' music of 1977 to 1980. The word originally means stealing, and hence behaving disreputably or moving stealthily, in Jamaican patois. skanky adj

a.

unpleasant, disreputable, dishonest, repellent

That was a skanky trick to pull.

b.

inelegant, unfashionable, vulgar

Did you clock those skanky shorts she was half-wearing?

A vogue term in hip hop and R 'n' B mi-lieus since the 1990s, the word originated in Jamaican speech in the 1970s or ear-lier.