funk-pot

   These are terms of abuse used mainly by children to a child who is thought to be a coward. The implication is that he or she is ‘in a funk’, i.e. in a state of panic. The origin of this slang expression is obscure, though it seems to have begun at Oxford University. One early meaning of ‘funk’ was ‘smoke’, and especially ‘to blow smoke upon a person while smoking’. This presumably for being in a ‘blue’ funk. See also Scaredy-cat.