The Term Frunk is… Unfortunate
Photo: General Motors
With the increasing prevalence of electric and mid-engine vehicles, it’s likely that you’ve heard the term frunk — or front truck — bandied about recently. Just on The News Wheel alone, we’ve reported on stories like Ford’s inexplicable ad claiming that the Mustang Mach-E’s frunk can hold more than 1,000 chicken wings, and a subsequent demand by our editor Kyle Johnson to know how many can fit into the 2020 Corvette Stingray’s front-end poultry holster.
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However, amid all of this conversation, I can’t help but think about how unfortunate the distinction frunk really is, especially since it sounds like so many other unappealing words. Here are a few terms that I feel prove we should band together to change the moniker to better suit this practical relocation of storage space.
Frump
This decidedly unpleasant word is a pejorative term that Merriam-Webster defines as “a dowdy, unattractive girl or woman.” Not only is it unnecessarily gendered and exceptionally body-negative, but it’s also rather uncomfortable to say in any context, as the concentration of plosives could use some improvement.
Drumpf
Putting aside the obvious political implications, drumpf sounds like a euphemism for a particularly gnarly bowel movement. That’s not something I want anywhere near my hard-earned — and unfortunately-hypothetical — 2020 Corvette.
Flunk
According to Dictionary.com, flunk, as a noun, means “a failure.” Given that the frunk is indicative of advancements in eco-friendly technology and present on the most powerful Corvette ever, the rhyme seems inappropriate.
Drunk
Real talk: Never drive while frunk. I mean… you know what I mean.
Flump
Depending on who you ask, flump either refers to a British children’s TV show named The Flumps, a marshmallow-based candy actually called Flumps, or, “the action or sound of a heavy fall,” according to Oxford’s Lexico.com. If it were up to me, I would encourage automakers to avoid terminology that sounds like onomatopoeia for falling a great distance only to land with a heavy thud.
Try as I might, I have yet to come up with any better term for a front-end trunk. If you have any suggestions, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!
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