Etymology

wonky

W4O1N1K5Y4

Today it means: Lopsided, misaligned or off-centre. Full definition →

Middle English wankel ← Old English wancol ← Proto-West Germanic *wankul
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wonky · adjective, noun1

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wankul“swaying, shaky, unstable”
  2. Old English · inherited fromwancol“unstable”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromwankel“unstable, shaky”
  4. English todaywonky

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

wonky · adjective2

From wonk + -y.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishwankel all →

wankle

Old Englishwancol all →

wankle

Proto-West Germanic*wankul all →

wankle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.