saucy

Etymology

It is formed from English sauce + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} According to Etymonline the link is sauce in the figurative sense of something that adds sharpness or piquancy to words or actions; it compares Skelton's “have eaten sauce”, to be abusive, and “sauce malapert”, impertinence.^[7] Johnson doubted that the word came from the noun and preferred Latin salsus (“salted”).^[8] The OED compares sassy, a variant.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Resembling sauce, savoury: 1508.^[9][3][4] The OED's first record of the sense "flavoured with or covered in sauce" is in Dunbar's Flyting, before 1513, and its first record of the word at all is the sense "insolent" in 1511, in Henry Watson's translation of Bernardino da Siena.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The food sense, now obsolete in the Shorter Oxford's judgement, was soon overtaken by the figurative one: insolent or presumptuous, especially towards those in authority (1511), which later softened to cheeky.^[2][5][7] Shakespeare used the word of a rash, venturing ship (1609)^[2][5] and of wanton, lascivious behaviour, "a term of serious condemnation" in his day according to the OED as quoted by Etymonline;^[7][2] the modern colloquial sense, mildly suggestive or risqué, grew out of it.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as pert, petulant, contemptuous of superiors and insolent.^[8] From the 18th century it could be affectionate: lively, sprightly (1741, in Richardson's Pamela),^[2] and Collins gives jaunty, as of a hat.^[10] Regional English kept other senses: fussy about food (1573), and of a plate, left with food on it (1874);^[2][4] scornful or disdainful in Scotland;^[2][11] vain or conceited (before 1774);^[2][11] and in East Anglia and the Isle of Wight lively or skittish, of animals.^[11] In Norfolk Saucy Alice was the spotted persicaria.^[11]

Timeline

• 1508 – resembling sauce, savoury; flavoured with sauce.^[3][4][2]
• 1511 – insolent, impudent, especially towards superiors; later cheeky.^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1530, in Palsgrave.^[3]
• 1573 – fastidious, fussy about food (now regional).^[2]
• 1604 – piquant, pleasantly sharp or tangy.^[2]
• 1609 – of a ship, rashly venturing (obsolete by 1648).^[2]
• before 1616 – wanton, lascivious; now, humorously, sexually suggestive.^[2]
• 1716 – scornful, disdainful (obsolete).^[2]
• 1741 – lively, sprightly.^[2]
• before 1774 – vain, conceited (now Scottish and regional).^[2]
• 1874 – of a plate, left with uneaten food (regional).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Boldly impertinent or cheeky, often in an amusing way: a saucy answer to the teacher.^[10][4][2]
2. Pert and lively; jaunty: a saucy little cap.^[10][2]
3. (informal) Mildly risqué or sexually suggestive: saucy seaside postcards.^[2][5]
4. Served with sauce, or like sauce in consistency.^[4][2]
5. (chiefly regional) Fussy, especially about food.^[4][2]
6. (archaic) Grossly disrespectful; insolent.^[4][8]

Word family

• saucily
• sauciness
• oversaucy

Related words

• sauce
• saucer
• sassy

Usage notes

The OED has a separate, obsolete adjective saucy (1600–23), meaning affected by saucefleme, from the first part of that word.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d 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)