peachy

Etymology

It is formed from English peach + -y.^[2][3][4][5] The fruit's name is from Old French pesche (“peach, peach tree”), from Late Latin pessica, a variant of Latin persica, short for mālum Persicum (“Persian apple”).^[3] The slang sense comes from peach in the sense of a fine or attractive person or thing.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like a peach in colour, texture or flavour: 1599, in T. Moffett's Silkewormes.^[2][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was soon used especially of cheeks or a complexion, fresh and soft with a pink flush.^[2][4] The noun peach meant an attractive woman from 1754 and a good person by 1904.^[3] From it the adjective took the slang sense "excellent, fine", first recorded in American college slang in Dialect Notes in 1900.^[2][6][3] By 1909 it was used of attractive women ("peachy princess"), and by 1918 ironically ("Peachy, indeed").^[6] The New Partridge notes that it is now used, if at all, with irony.^[8] The extended form peachy-keen is recorded from 1953.^[3] A noun peachy, a fermented drink made from peaches, formed after perry, is recorded once, in 1781.^[2]

Timeline

• 1599 – like a peach in colour, texture or flavour; of cheeks, soft and pink.^[2][7]
• 1781 – noun, a fermented drink made from peaches (obsolete).^[2]
• 1900 – slang, excellent, marvellous; of a woman, attractive.^[2][6][3]
• 1953 – peachy-keen.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Like a peach in colour, texture or flavour; of the skin, soft with a pink flush.^[7][2][4]
2. (informal) Very good, fine or excellent; often used ironically: Everything is just peachy.^[7][2][6][8]
3. (informal) Of a woman, attractive.^[2][6]

Word family

• peachiness
• peachy keen

Related words

• peach

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge