Blue funk

Origin of: Blue funk

Blue funk

To be in a blue funk is to be cowering with fear. To be in a funk, meaning to be afraid, is slang that dates from the mid-18th century, with the intensifier ‘blue’ being added about a century. Although ‘to look blue’ without the word funk, meaning ‘affected with fear or anxiety’ dates from c. 1550, according to the OED. For a fuller explanation of blue see Blue.