Gank
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Amonst other definitions, Gank is a slang term which refers to theft by force. The term was popularized in gangster rap lyrics of the late 1980s such as N.W.A 'Thugs 4 life', Priority Records, 1988 in which Eric "Eazy-E" Wright states "Gankers got the fake but you can get the real(...)".
Gank is a programming term for taking someone else's source code and reusing it to fit one's own purposes. For example, it is common for people to go to a website with Javascript code and copy and paste the source into their own webpages with minor changes. This likely came from the 'theft-by-force' definition.
Gank is a term from Player vs. Player MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft. It originally came from the phrase "gang kill" and referred to multiple players killing a single player (e.g. "to gank a n00b"). However, it has evolved to also mean killing a player far less powerful than oneself or killing a player already fighting a non-player character.
Gank is also slang for something of a distasteful or unpleasant nature. Usage "That rotten tree is gank."
