ETYMOLOGY
from water + funk (a cowardly or nervous person)
EXAMPLE
“… The arms, he may next be taught, do little more in the act of swimming than support the body; the necessary speed is procured by the action of the legs. A sensible lad, who is not a “ water-funk ”— to use the expressive term of the period— if the theory of the art be thus explained to him, ought to swim in six or seven lessons. …”
From: The Academy. A weekly review of literature, science, and art
Swimming. By A. Sinclair and W. Henry
August, 1893
Lexicophilia 