Jump to content

horny

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: horný and hôrny

English

[edit]
A horny male Nubian ibex.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Etymology 1

[edit]

From Middle English horny, equivalent to horn +‎ -y. Compare German hornig. Compare also Dutch hoornachtig, Swedish hornaktig, Old English hyrniġ (“angular”). Piecewise doublet of corny.

Adjective

[edit]

horny (comparative hornier, superlative horniest)

  1. Hard or bony, like an animal's horn.
    Synonyms: callous, coarse, hardened, rough
    • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998, Chapter 6:
      Two Dwarfs were at the bellows, another was holding a piece of red-hot metal on the anvil with a pair of tongs, a fourth was hammering it, and two, wiping their horny little hands on a greasy cloth, were coming forward to meet the visitors.
  2. Having the hard consistency and pale colour of an animal's horn.
    Synonym: ceratose (biology)
  3. Having horns.
    Synonym: horned
    • 2026 March 9, Karen M. Dvornich, “Short-horned Lizard”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], archived from the original on 28 October 2010:
      In 1997, 4th and 5th grade Waterville Elementary students told me they saw Short-horned lizards (commonly known as Horny toads) all around their area.
Derived terms
[edit]
Translations
[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

Etymology 2

[edit]

From the horn (“an erect penis”) +‎ -y (“having the quality of”). The adjective originally meant "erect", but was later was broadened to refer not only to sexual arousal but also to sexual desire in general.

Adjective

[edit]

horny (comparative hornier, superlative horniest)

  1. (slang) Sexually aroused, with or without physical manifestation; experiencing a feeling of sexual desire.
    Synonyms: horned up, lustful, lusty, randy, toey, in heat, thirsty; see also Thesaurus:randy
    • 1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 104:
      [H]er thick, gurgling voice saying […] : "Get it in all the way… please, please do… I’m horny."
    • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 82:
      After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes. I was feeling pretty horny. I have to admit it.
    • 1971 October, Black World, page 65/1:
      Ain’t that the horny bitch that was grindin with the blind dude.
    • 1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J:
      As I turn the corner, starin' in your cornea / You're gettin' hornier and hornier
    • 2014, David Burr Gerrard, Short Century:
      It’s something of a cliché, at least among war correspondents, that war makes people unusually horny; what it actually does is make you want to touch as much flesh as you can get your hands on.
    • 2019 December 13, Tracie Egan Morrissey, “The Year Women Got ‘Horny’”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
      “Mrs. Fletcher,” the HBO mini-series about a middle-aged woman’s sexual reawakening, showcases a horny mom who can’t stop masturbating to pornography.
    • 2023 January 23, Naveen Kumar, “‘Sugar Daddy’ Review: The Grief Comes Out in Laughs”, in The New York Times‎[3]:
      “Sad gay men are objectively just the horniest people in the world,” Morrison says, citing a conversation with his therapist who assured him the combination of feelings is totally natural.
    • 2024 April 28, Brooks Barnes, “After Period of Chastity, Hollywood Movies Embrace Sex Again”, in The New York Times‎[4]:
      But this much can be said with surety: Hollywood is hornier than it has been in years.
  2. (slang) Sexually arousing; pornographic.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sexy
    It's hard to find good fanart of this character because most of the drawings are super horny.
    • 2003, Peep Show (TV series), Funeral (episode)
      Mark Corrigan: She [the dentist] should have to wear a mask for this kind of thing. Reagan or Batman or... actually she'd look pretty horny as Batman... Jesus, no, don't!
  3. Of a person, with an erect penis due to being aroused.
    Synonyms: erect, hard
Derived terms
[edit]
Descendants
[edit]
  • (sexually aroused): → Irish: adharcach (semantic loan)
  • (sexually aroused): → Russian: хорни (xorni)
  • (sexually aroused): → Saterland Frisian: honig
Translations
[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=horny&oldid=89679389"