Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 2/10/2010

Question
I searched around a bit, but couldn't find any promising results.  Do you by chance know (or could you find out) how the word "hot" came to mean "attractive"?

Answer
Dear Alex:

I want to add a couple of comments concerning your question and the ratings you gave my answer.

First, Allexperts asks us volunteers [we do NOT get paid, remember] to answer a question within 72 hours.

Second, the Allexperts "clearing house system" frequently runs a little slow.  Your question had a time stamp of 7:20 p.m. last night.  When I went to bed at 11:30 p.m. [Eastern Standard Time], your question was NOT in my inbox.  When I turned on my computer this morning at 8:00 a.m., there were seven questions from Allexperts' users waiting for me.  I answered them in the order they were sent, so my first response was to a student at McMaster University in Canada.  Then I answered the second question, from one of my "regulars" in Japan.  It was quite lengthy.

Your question was third in my Allexperts inbox.  I began researching your request at about 8:45 a.m.  The word "hot" is very common and is used widely as an adjective, an adverb, a noun, and a verb [both transitive and intransitive].  In addition, the word appears in many, many phrases.  I had page after page after page to explore in "The Oxford English Dictionary."  That took a long time, but I wanted to give you the most thorough, the most comprehensive answer that I could.  I spent about one and a half hours doing the research to answer your question, for FREE.

My answer to you was time stamped by Allexperts at 10:18 a.m. today.  That's 15 hours after you sent it -- but, I didn't receive it last night, and I was asleep, recovering from a four-day bout with the flu.  I have missed four days of work, but I DID try to help you.  You didn't read my answer until about 7 hours after I sent it.

You also found me lacking in "politeness."  I have reviewed my answer to you, and I find nothing but a very professional response.  I wrote nothing "impolite."  I have no idea what you were expecting from me -- a thank you for sending the question to me?

You have me completely baffled.  If you will check the top volunteers at Allexperts, you will find that I am one of the highest rated experts and have been for eleven years.

At one time, there were six volunteers in the etymological area.  We are now down to just two.  I know personally that two of the four who stopped offering their services did so, because of the attitudes of the questioners.

I hope that, if you have an etymological question in the future, that you will contact Carol.  And, please treat her more kindly than you have me.

I am sorry for not living up to your expectations.

Sincerely,

Ted Nesbitt

*************************  

According to "The Oxford English Dictionary," the current usage of "hot" to mean attractive goes back to about the year 1300, when it was first used in WRITTEN English to describe sexual desire.

The U. S. slang expression, at first meant for women only, appeared in "The New Republic" magazine in 1926.  The dictionary says that this usage of "hot" means attractive or "sexy."  But, the reader is advised to read the original usage of "hot," from 1300 AD onward, to see the connection between hot [meaning lustful] and the later slang word [meaning sexy].  It doesn't seem to be a "stretch" to see the connection between "lustful" [how a person feels] and "sexy" [how another person looks].

Here are the complete citations for the two meanings from "The Oxford English Dictionary."  Remember that the word was probably SPOKEN long before someone ever WRITE it down.

Ted Nesbitt

ORIGINAL MEANING --

c. Full of or characterized by sexual desire, lustful; sexually aroused; (of an animal) in heat (cf. HEAT n. 13). Also of written or visual material: sexually explicit, licentious. In later use chiefly colloq.
 to be hot for: to desire (a person) sexually.
?a1300 Maximian (Digby) l. 79 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 94 Ich wes hot and am kold. c1405 (c1387-95) CHAUCER Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 628 And hoot he was and lecherous as a Sparwe. ?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) 527  ogh he were froted and made hote wi  alle  ynges  at maken hote and exciten..And bydde he  at  ai lye togidre by some dayes..and make he ham hote. c1511 in E. Arber 1st Three Eng. Bks. on Amer. (1885) Introd. 27 Very hoote and dyposed to lecherdnes. 1568 (?a1513) W. DUNBAR Poems (1998) 40 Thair cwmis  oung monkis..And in the courte thair hait flesche dantis. a1616 SHAKESPEARE Othello (1622) III. iii. 408 Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkies. 1668 T. JORDAN Money is Asse IV. i. 26 Why doth the Devil feed with liquorish meats, spiritful Wine, high pride, hot lechery, and feathered ease, those that he means to damn. 1718 N. AMHURST Strephon's Revenge 11 While leering she observes his sparkling Eyes, Drunk with hot Lust. 1797 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 87 199, I took a female rabbit, hot, (as the feeders term it) that is, ready to be impregnated. 1826 Lancet 22 July 527/1, I brought..a male pointer to a hot poodle bitch. 1892 E. J. MILLIKEN 'Arry Ballads 37 As most of our plays are now cribbed from the French, wy they're all pooty 'ot. 1908 Daily Chron. 22 June 6/5 Publishing firms..discovered that money was to be made out of what they called ‘the hot novel’. 1935 J. T. FARRELL Judgment Day i. 17 Are you getting hot for your old lady? 1961 C. RUSSELL & W. M. S. RUSSELL Human Behaviour 42 An ovulating, or oestrous female, may be described as ‘hot’. 1985 Music Week 2 Feb. (Advt. Suppl.) 4 No ‘hot’ videos required. 2002 Out Sept. 75/2 Bridges feels perfectly free to bring dates to Alpha Sig parties, to tell his brothers all about the guys he's hot for.

CONTEMPORARY SLANG --

i. slang (orig. U.S.). Of a person (originally a woman): sexually attractive; sexy. Cf. sense A. 8c and RED-HOT adj. 2b.
1926 New Republic 17 Feb. 350/2 If you've forgotten your mythology, Aphrodite more widely known as Venus was the hot momma of goddesses. 1961 A. SILLITOE Key to Door (1962) xvi. 211 Give me the address of a hot girl then. 1983 J. DILLINGER Adrenaline 103 Jillions of hot young guys. 1999 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) June 312/3 Do you own a dress that makes you look and feel really hot?