Word for the American Century

Sexy is an odd word, when you think about it. Just take a

thing that has pretty universally liked -- that sells, as

the saying goes -- and put a y at the end so it is an

adjective.

When we want to say someone is fast, we don't describe them

as runny. We may call a person a "foodie," but doesn't

describe how food-like they are. (Yeah, this could grow

into an entire stand-up bit).

Such are the things my wife gets to hear from me often

first as I get myself more and more wound up in an idea.

Next, it occurred to me that sexy was most likely a

relatively recent coinage [1]. After all, we had many

perfectly good words that worked to describe someone with

sex appeal. We had voluptuous, beautiful, nubile, even

sensual, flirtatious, coquettish. We didn't need sexy.

Or did we? For one thing, it signals a kind of illiteracy

-- and it would have done so more when the word first

gained usage. It is cool to show your sexuality is not

governed by old rules of convention and refined diction.

Second, unlike many of the words we had before, the

personality and intelligence of the object of attraction

does not matter to sexiness. It is a word for staged

images that are able to edit everything out except -- well,

sexiness. The word is literally dehumanizing. Sexy is an

ideal word for the world of mass media, including it being

an extremely short word. It is easy to process no matter

how low your verbal abilities are.

The Oxford English Dictionary shows the word started in the

1920s and at first was a reference to the way people were

reacting to mass media -- think something along the lines of

"over-sexed," or "sex crazed," but it then settled into the

use we all know and love.

===

[1] I predicted that a chart of usage, like google ngram,

would show a late adoption and then a rapid upward growth.

And that is the case. Although this now leaves the puzzle

of the "sexy collapse" after 2004.