Urban Dictionary claims that the word "jank" gets most of its meaning from context, and therefore can be used as a generic adjective, taking on whatever meaning the speaker wants.

"This CD player I bought off Ebay is jank."

"While we were in china we went through this market and bought all these movies for $3. They're so jank, you can see the heads of the people in front of the camera at the theater moving at the bottom of the screen."

"My parents made me call home to check in with them every hour.. it was so jank."

Okay, there are a lot of janky things in this world, but that doesn't mean that the word doesn't have a very specific meaning.

So for the love of language, here is a clarification of the meaning of the multiple senses of this wonderfully descriptive word.

First off, it's helpful to know that the word "jank" originated in the IT world, where it referred to "defects or low-quality processes that lead to poor response times for software, or that impede user operations." So it makes sense that "jank" can refer to other things that malfunction, like a CD player you bought off Ebay. Those $3 pirated movies you bought in China are probably more sketchy than janky, but hey, it works. But that third example?

But there's a concept of jank that goes beyond mere definition. It's an aesthetic, if you will. It's something that you can identify, but you can't quite point out what exactly makes it jank.

Jank is that old mustard-yellow wool sweater that your great-aunt made for you, that you still wear sometimes because it's warm, even though it's the itchiest thing you've ever put on your body. It's still stuck in the front closet from the last time you wore it, when you were out in some sleet and it got all frumpy and wet, clinging to your arms with the too-familiar smell of damp sheep.

That's jank.

It can also be used to describe almost-off produce. You know, that week-and-a-half-old bag of arugula you'd feel guilty about throwing away because it's technically still edible... you know you're just waiting a few more days to toss it until it's justifiably compost, but you still leave it in the freaking drawer! Why?!

These are just little examples of everyday jank. They're everywhere, once you look for them. But there's also a more purposeful, studied sense of jank. It's almost an art. You take something normal, pretty, or even majestic, and tweak one little thing, giving the whole scene a whiff of the jank. It's the physical equivalent of a composer hiding one dissonant note in the grand finale of a symphony, just so it's not too perfect. That little bit of jank makes the whole sound fuller, more real, because nothing's ever perfect.

So go, notice the jank, embrace the jank, and please, for the love of language, make sure you use the word correctly!