horny

Etymology

It is from English horn + -y, formed in Middle English.^[2][3][4][5] The slang sense "sexually aroused" comes from horn in the slang sense of an erect penis;^[6][4][7] Etymonline traces it to a late 18th-century slang expression about having “the horn”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made of horn, or of a texture like horn: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the original sense came "hardened like horn, callous", recorded from 1693,^[2] as in hands hardened by work,^[4] and "having horns", from 1530.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "made of horn" and "resembling horn", quoting Milton on the ravens' "horny beaks".^[8] The sexual sense is recorded in slang from 1826 in an American diary,^[7] and the OED has it from 1889, in Barrère and Leland's Dictionary of Slang, noting that it was used chiefly of men;^[2][3] it was later applied to women as well.^[3] As a noun, horny or hornie has meant a policeman (from 1753), a cow or bullock in Scottish and Australian slang (from 1808), and, as Auld Hornie in Scots, the devil (from 1786, in Burns).^[2][7] In the dialects of Scotland and northern England it formed many compounds, such as horny-golach, the earwig.^[9]

Timeline

• 1398 – made of horn.^[2]
• 1530 – having horns.^[2]
• 1693 – hardened, callous.^[2][3]
• 1753 – noun, a policeman (slang).^[2]
• 1786 – Auld Hornie, the devil (Scottish).^[2]
• 1808 – noun, a cow or bullock (Scottish and Australian slang).^[2][7]
• 1826 – sexually aroused (slang).^[7]
• 1869 – of sounds, like a horn.^[2]
• 1889 – the same sense in the OED's first example.^[2][3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. (informal) Sexually aroused or eager; lustful.
2. Made of horn or of a hard, horn-like substance.
3. Hard and rough, as skin is from work; callous: the horny palms of a stonemason.
4. Having horns or horn-like projections.

Word family

• horniness
• hornily

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)