steamy

Etymology

It is formed from English steam + -y.^[2][3][4][5] The noun goes back to Old English steam (“vapour, fumes, odour”), from Proto-Germanic *staumaz, a word of unknown origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of, giving off or consisting of steam: 1565, according to Merriam-Webster's Unabridged,^[6] and the mid-16th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[3] The OED's first record is from 1644, in Kenelm Digby's Two Treatises,^[2] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com also date the word to the 1640s.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From 1869 it was used of surfaces covered with condensed vapour, at first of the cornea of the eye in pathology.^[2][3] Slang gave it several heated senses: angry in American English from 1912, sweaty from 1962,^[7] and, most lastingly, sexually exciting or erotic, recorded by 1952 according to Etymonline.^[4] Green's Dictionary of Slang has this sense from 1960 and the OED from 1970,^[7][2] and Collins labels it informal.^[8] In Montreal a steamy was a hot dog, in 1915.^[7]

Timeline

• 1565 – full of or giving off steam.^[6] The OED's first record is from 1644.^[2]
• 1869 – covered with condensed vapour.^[2][3]
• 1912 – in American slang, angry.^[7]
• 1915 – in Canada, a noun for a hot dog.^[7]
• 1952 – erotic, salacious.^[4] Green's Dictionary of Slang dates it to 1960 and the OED to 1970.^[7][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of, giving off or consisting of steam; hot and humid: a steamy kitchen.^[8][6][3]
2. Covered with condensed vapour: steamy windows.^[8][3][2]
3. (informal) Sexually exciting; erotic or salacious: a steamy love scene.^[8][3][7]

Word family

• steamily
• steaminess

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins