Why do we say “I flunked a test”? Where does flunk come from? I think saying, “I dunked a test” sounds much better. Then you can say “I slam dunked that test!” Or if you really did bad, you can say, “I 360∆í slam dunked it.”
The whole lexicon of slam dunk language is available as a field of language to describe how you dunked a test.
Dictionaries are fine, but they often do not give you the etymology of a word. One of the best classes I ever took in college was Etymology which discussed…well, the etymology of words.
Often it was as easy as finding the Latin or Greek root of the word and working inside out. But too often, words [like flunk”> are a form of slang, and while we can study from where the slang came, more often than not it’s just a stab in the dark.
flunk – 1823 [!”>, American English college slang, original meaning “to back out, give up, fail,” traditionally said to be an alteration of British university slang funk “to be frightened, shrink from.”
By the way, here’s your etomology for “dunk”
dunk – 1919, from Pennsylvania Dutch dunke “to dip,” from M.H.G. [Middle High German”> “dunken”, from O.H.G. [Old High German”> “dunkon”, “thunkon”.
Basketball sense is first recorded 1937.
German-American Anabaptist sect of Dunkers [who baptise with triple immersion”> first recorded by that name 1756.