Lank means long, limp and without body. Lank hair, a lank figure, lank and greasy.
It is used most about hair, where it means hanging flat with no bounce at all, and it is never a compliment. Of a person it means thin and loosely built. Lanky is the commoner relative and means tall and awkwardly thin.
1adjectivelankLong, limp and without body.
“His lank, greasy hair hung over his eyes.”
lank is a quality.
Old English hlanc meant thin or slender, from a Germanic root. Flank may be a distant relative.
Proto-Indo-European
*kleng- — to bend, turn, wind, twist
Proto-Germanic
*hlankaz — lank, thin
Proto-West Germanic
*hlank
Old English
hlanc
Middle English
lank
English, today
lank
From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic hlank, from Proto-Germanic hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link of a chain.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA