Thursday, September 04, 2008

Jenky is a Word!!

Jenky (j-ayn-key)
(adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and delapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people. (Urban Dictionary)

I used this word the other day, and Chris had never heard it before. That's weird, because I use it all the time. It must be while talking to my girlfriends. Anyway, I was considering tanning here in Duluth, just to give me a running start for wintertime (it's gotta hold me over till, like, April). There is a video store down the street that is also...a tanning salon. There are 3 small rooms behind the counter. Two of them house tanning beds, and the third contains a selection of adult movies. So to put this word in context for you:

Jamie: I really need to look into some places to tan.
Chris: Why don't you do it at the video store?
Jamie: Yeah right! That place is so jenky! (If I wanted to go TOTALLY Nor-Cal, I'd throw in a "hella" in place of "so".)
Chris: Jenky? You mean junky?
Jamie: No...jenky. It's a word.
Chris: What does THAT mean?
Jamie: It means I'm not tanning at the freaking VIDEO store.

Anybody else drop "jenky" on occasion?


(This post stemmed from a conversation with Beth. Thanks for the idea, BFF.)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, I am familiar with that word. It might be another Nor Cal thing, I remember it being quite popular there. Also, if you do tan at the video store...I would search for hidden cameras first. The have to get the material for that other tanning room somehow.

Lori said...

My husband uses that word, but until he did, I'd never heard it before. He's from socal, but did an internship in Salinas. Does that count?

Kevin said...

no, but i remember spelling delapidated correctly on my spelling test.

that was always a fun word to say. Even if you don't know the meaning of it.

Jamie Stavenger said...

Lori...I'm gonna qualify Salinas as Central Cal, not Nor Cal. BUT, Salinas, in itself, is jenky. So, point for you! :)

Angela said...

I don't know if anyone knows what I mean down here in the land of y'all, fixin' to and git 'er done, but I use JANKY, all the time!!! I spell it a little different, but when do really write it down?

Becky said...

I had no idea jenky was spelled with an "e!" And yes, I am a proponent of the term. Justin and I tend to use the shorter version, "jenk," most of the time. So we must be "hella Norcal."

We are also big users of the word "nast."

Per Urban Dictionary:
NAST
Adjective. Basically short for nasty, but used when repulsed beyond the state of nasty.

Jamie Stavenger said...

Geez, Becky! What do have against "y"s? Should we just call you "Beck"?

Nicole said...

This (along with many of your posts) made me seriously laugh out loud. I mean we all put LOL out there but do we really acutally laugh out loud? I just did :) Kudos for you and your jenky video store tanning salon

Thank you

Jamie Stavenger said...

Thanks, Nicole. I'm glad my little ho-dunk life in Duluth can bring smiles to so many :)

John Garcia said...

haha! I knew you'd eventually succumb to making up words! That is TOTALLY a made up word. To cite from an urban dictionary is like citing wikipedia for an essay... Sure it might be something that's convenient, but when it all comes down to it, it doesn't count!