sweaty

Etymology

It is formed from English sweat + -y,^[2][3][4][5] first as swety in Middle English.^[6][7][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Toilsome, laborious, causing one to sweat: about 1374, in Chaucer's The Former Age.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "covered with or stained by sweat" is first recorded in 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene,^[2][3] though the Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 16th century.^[4] Of people it meant toiling from 1603, and of things exuding moisture like sweat from 1600.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "covered with sweat", "consisting of sweat" and "laborious; toilsome", quoting Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Swift.^[9] The sense "excessively hot" is recorded from 1821,^[2] and the colloquial "severe, demanding", of a task, from 1919.^[2][10] British children's slang uses it for a person who is very unpleasant or unattractive (2001).^[10] In Hampshire dialect sweaty meant mean or worthless.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – toilsome, laborious, in Chaucer.^[2]
• 1590 – covered with or stained by sweat, in Spenser.^[2]
• 1600 – exuding moisture like sweat.^[2]
• 1603 – of people, toiling.^[2]
• 1734 – consisting of sweat, in Swift.^[2]
• 1821 – excessively hot.^[2]
• 1919 – severe, demanding (colloquial).^[2][10]
• 2001 – of a person, very unpleasant (British children's slang).^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with, damp with or smelling of sweat: sweaty gym clothes.^[12][6][2]
2. Causing one to sweat, especially through great heat: a sweaty August evening.^[12][6][2]
3. Hard, laborious; involving much effort.^[6][2]
4. (colloquial) Severe or demanding.^[2][4][10]
5. Consisting of sweat.^[2][9]

Word family

• sweatily
• sweatiness

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins