According to Merriam-Webster:

skank (noun) \ˈskaŋk\
Definition of SKANK
: a person and especially a woman of low or sleazy character

origin unknown
First Known Use: 1964

Allen stands corrected.

Depends.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/skank





Verify this, and maybe:





I personally don't recall ever hearing the word prior to the mid-90's, but it was apparently common British slang in the 80's. At any rate, not common American slang in the 1960's.

Either way, if it didn't start until 1964, it was certainly not common usage during the Vietnam War era.

Such anachronisms are indeed irritating. The one that's always bugged me the most for some reason is in "Back to the Future Part III". There is a scene where Doc & Marty ask the train conductor how fast the train can go, and the conductor replies "I've had it up to 55 myself".

Really? In 1885 someone would assume that "miles per hour" was implied?

I remember skanks from the '60's, but yeah, we called them skags.

Holy cripes, how old are you?

First time I heard the word was in 1991, the song "Monster Skank" from the album The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move by Infectious Grooves. Reviewing the lyrics, I'm pretty sure that was a reference to the dance. I can't remember the first time I heard it used in reference to a woman of low character.

who can remember these things? when did you first hear "fuck"?

I probably actually read it first, in Superfolks, which I first read in 1978. That was also around the same time my school started mingling separate grade groups, so maybe I heard older kids using it.

Late 1970s, when I was 7 or 8 years old.

Someone had written it in bold letters across the side of a telephone booth (remember those?) outside a store. I spotted it and, using my newfound phonetics skills, spelled it out. "FUCK!" I cried happily. "What's a fuck?"

My mother, standing next to me, was not enchanted.

"It's a very bad word for a very bad thing," she scolded me, and I never used that word in front of her again.

Now that I'm the parent of a young boy with excellent hearing, I find myself irritated by people who cuss loudly and endlessly when they're next to us in public.

I'm no saint myself, but I always tried to tone it down when there were kids in the vicinity.

I may be in the minority.

Standing in line at the ATM -- walking around the grocery -- playing at the park -- browsing at the comics shop (!) -- sitting at a red light with the radio of the next car whump whump whumping its mournful dirge -- Junior and I are constantly treated to a chorus of fucks, shits, cunts, cocksuckers, assholes, motherfuckers and so on, to say nothing of the lovely racial epithets people feel comfortable calling each other, regardless of what color their skin actually is.

Junior's innocence may not last long.

I remember one day when I was in fifth or sixth grade and still naive about the world. I was sitting in my chair before the bell rang, zoned out, staring blankly at the wall. A rather large and coarse girl who had been held back a few years walked in and took a seat directly in my line of sight. I didn't even really notice her; I was lost in my thoughts. She glared at me looking in her direction and said, "What is it, fuckin' faggot? You want to eat my pussy?" Shocked, I could only blink and say: "Ah. No. Thanks."