seedy

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(Anglès)

Literal senses:
Literal senses:
(colloquial) Literal senses:
(figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
(figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
(figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
(figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.

Freqüència

Pronunciat com a (IPA)

/ˈsiːdi/

Heretat de anglès mitjà

sedy

In summary

From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y. The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”.