bawdy

English

Etymology

From bawd +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːdi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔdi/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑdi/
• Rhymes: -ɔːdi
• Homophone: body (cot–caught merger)

Adjective

bawdy (comparative bawdier or more bawdy, superlative bawdiest or most bawdy)

1. Obscene; filthy; unchaste. [from 15th Century]
2. (of language) Sexual in nature and usually meant to be humorous but considered rude; ribald.

Derived terms

• bawdily
• bawdiness
• bawdy basket
• bawdy-house

Translations

obscene

• Bulgarian: неприличен (bg) (nepriličen), нецензурен (bg) (necenzuren)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 猥褻的 / 猥亵的 (wěixiè de), 下流的 (xiàliú de), 淫穢的 / 淫秽的 (yínhuì de)

• Czech: necudný, lascivní (cs)
• Dutch: obsceen (nl), onkuis (nl)
• Finnish: rivo (fi)
• French: grivois (fr), paillard (fr)
• German: unanständig (de)
• Greek: αισχρός (el) m (aischrós), άσεμνος (el) m (ásemnos)
• Maori: mōtekoteko, takao
• Polish: sprośny (pl), obleśny (pl)
• Romanian: obscen (ro) m
• Serbo-Croatian: nepristojan (sh) m, prost (sh) m
• Spanish: guarro (es), sucio (es), lascivo (es)
• Swedish: oanständig (sv)
• Ukrainian: непристойний m (neprystojnyj), розпусний m (rozpusnyj)

Noun

bawdy (plural bawdies)

1. A bawdy or lewd person.
   • 1983, Richard Hoyt, The Siskiyou Two-step (page 78)

     The Bawdies were girls who danced naked on a ramp in the middle of a room full of tables with tops the size of pie plates.

   • 2001, Bill Rinaldi, You Can If You Think You Can: The Power of Thinking Big (page 37)

     Our scholarly studies and discoveries about bodies and bawdies and the forbidden mysteries of S-E-X proved that participatory education had to be the very best.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “bawdy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Middle English

Adjective

bawdy

1. soiled, dirty [from 14th Century]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book VII:

     whanne he had ouertaken the damoysel / anone she sayd what dost thow here / thou stynkest al of the kechyn / thy clothes ben bawdy of the greece and talowe that thou gaynest in kyng Arthurs kechyn

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)