# Brits: mank vs. Manc
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 17, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583 "2010-08-17T23:00:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/1 "2010-08-17T23:00:09Z")
Question for the Brits:
I’ve heard “mank” and “manky” used as a term for disgusting things. I think I’ve also heard “Manc” used as a term for someone from Manchester. Have I mis-heard? Are they pronounced differently? How do you tell one from the other? Is one derived from the other? Doesn’t that suck for people from Manchester?
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### Author:  [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/2 "2010-08-17T23:25:23Z")
> [@B.Serum](#):
>
> Question for the Brits:
>
> I’ve heard “mank” and “manky” used as a term for disgusting things. I think I’ve also heard “Manc” used as a term for someone from Manchester. Have I mis-heard? Are they pronounced differently? How do you tell one from the other? Is one derived from the other? Doesn’t that suck for people from Manchester?
‘Mank’ would be very rare and only as some sort of contraction of ‘manky’ which is reasonably common. I suppose if you had a bit of fruit that had gone off you might hear describe the rotten parts as ‘mank’
‘Manc’ comes from Mancunian (or at least it would seem so), I’m not aware of any connection between the two words and I don’t think any connection would be made despite the simlairities between ‘Manc’ and ‘manky’.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/3 "2010-08-17T23:31:11Z")
To answer questions in the OP:
> [@](#):
>
> I’ve heard “mank” and “manky” used as a term for disgusting things.
Yes, a bit on the grimy side, sweaty, unwashed, low flat nasal vowels, incest and violence.
> [@](#):
>
> I think I’ve also heard “Manc” used as a term for someone from Manchester. Have I mis-heard? Are they pronounced differently?
No, more or less the same pronunciation.
> [@](#):
>
> How do you tell one from the other?
Pronunciation wise, there’s very little difference.
> [@](#):
>
> Doesn’t that suck for people from Manchester?
In comparison to people from Liverpool, yes.
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### Author:  [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/4 "2010-08-18T00:42:04Z")
> [@B.Serum](#):
>
> How do you tell one from the other?
Same way you tell the other thousand words in the English language which sound the same as each other. From context; it’s easy, honest.
Red - Read
Bore - Boar
Could be worse. There are words both spelled the same AND pronounced the same, but mean different things.
Skate - a fish, or a manner of moving on ice.
Bow - a type of knot, or a gesture of respect.
Row - an argument, or a way to propel a boat.
There’s honestly no difficulty in it. 🙂
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/5 "2010-08-18T01:06:37Z")
_Manky_ is a fairly modern word; the earliest citation in the OED is from 1939 – and that’s in _Finnegans Wake_ and, as with so much else in that work, the sense in which Joyce intends the word is uncertain. The earliest certain citation in the sense of “inferior, defective, dirty, disgusting” is from 1958.
Despite the fact that the word is so recent, the OED thinks its derivation is uncertain. It could be:
- from _mank_, a much earlier Scottish word meaning “maimed, mutilated”, whose own derivation it itself uncertain
- a variant of _mangy_
- from _mankie_ a Scottish word for a particular type of woollen fabric which was, apparently, of low grade.
- from the French _manqué_, which has the sense of “spoiled, defective, unsatisfactory”.
There doesn’t seem to be any connection with the abbreviation for _Mancunian_, though _Manc_ in that sense is of similar vintage, first recorded in 1951.
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### Author:  [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/6 "2010-08-18T01:20:15Z")
I think my perception is colored by Ricky Gervais using “Manc” somewhat derisively when talking about Karl Pilkington.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/7 "2010-08-18T01:32:36Z")
> [@Candyman74](#):
>
> Skate - a fish, or a manner of moving on ice.
> Bow - a type of knot, or a gesture of respect.
> Row - an argument, or a way to propel a boat.
>
> There’s honestly no difficulty in it. 🙂
Bow and row both have different pronunciations for the respective meanings you’ve given.
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/8 "2010-08-18T03:38:18Z")
> [@Candyman74](#):
>
> Could be worse. There are words both spelled the same AND pronounced the same, but mean different things.
>
> Skate - a fish, or a manner of moving on ice.
> Bow - a type of knot, or a gesture of respect.
> Row - an argument, or a way to propel a boat.
>
> There’s honestly no difficulty in it. 🙂
What accents pronounce Bow & Row the same way for both definitions?
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/9 "2010-08-18T08:33:40Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> > [@Candyman74](#):
> >
> > Skate - a fish, or a manner of moving on ice.
> > Bow - a type of knot, or a gesture of respect.
> > Row - an argument, or a way to propel a boat.
> >
> > There’s honestly no difficulty in it. 🙂
>
> Bow and row both have different pronunciations for the respective meanings you’ve given.
Yup. You could say ‘bow = front part of a ship _or_ a gesture of respect,’ and ‘row = horizontal line of objects _or_ a way to propel a boat.’
They’re called homonyms. Manc and Mank are homophones - pronounced exactly the same way but with completely different meanings. It is just context which indicates the difference.
‘Scouse’ has two meanings - ‘from Liverpool’ or ‘a type of stew.’
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/10 "2010-08-18T08:47:18Z")
Worth noting that _manky_ is unambiguous. It’s only _mank_ which can be mistaken for _Manc_, a person from Manchester. And, as other posters have noted, _Mank_ is extremely rare. I’m familiar with _manky_, but I had never heard or read _mank_ until this thread. And I don’t think _Manc_ is terribly common either. So I doubt that confusion between the two would arise very often.
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/11 "2010-08-18T16:20:40Z")
Manc’s pretty common in and around Manchester itself.
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### Author:  [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/12 "2010-08-18T16:22:52Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> > [@Candyman74](#):
> >
> > Skate - a fish, or a manner of moving on ice.
> > Bow - a type of knot, or a gesture of respect.
> > Row - an argument, or a way to propel a boat.
> >
> > There’s honestly no difficulty in it. 🙂
>
> Bow and row both have different pronunciations for the respective meanings you’ve given.
OK, OK,
Bow - part of a ship or a gesture of respect.
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### Author:  [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-mank-vs-manc/550583/13 "2010-08-18T17:57:59Z")
[QUOTE=B. Serum]
I think my perception is colored by Ricky Gervais using “Manc” somewhat derisively when talking about Karl Pilkington.
[/QUOTE]
From Gervais I also learned of the word “twonk”, which continues to please me to this day.