HORNY
What does "HORNY" mean?
Made of, resembling, or hardened like horn; informally, sexually aroused.
Meanings
- Hard and rough like horn; calloused. Years of labour had left his hands horny and cracked.
- Having horns or horn-like projections. The horny toad is actually a lizard covered in spiny scales.
- Sexually aroused or eager. He sent an embarrassingly horny text and regretted it instantly. informal
Did you know?
- The tough outermost layer of your skin is the 'stratum corneum' - literally the 'horny layer', sharing a root with horn because it is built from the same hardening protein, keratin.
Word origin
From 'horn' (Old English 'horn', a hard pointed growth) + the adjectival '-y'; the sexual sense is a later slang extension dating to the 19th century.
Remember it
HORNY = HORN + Y: the original meaning is simply 'hard as horn'; the Y just makes the horn an adjective.
A little poem
Before the blush, the word meant only this:
a hand gone hard with work no soft skin is.
couplet
Wordplay
- The old farmer called his hands horny and the new intern blushed - they were both right, just about different layers.
What it teaches
A word's oldest meaning is often the most honest; the body wears its history in calluses.
Quick facts
What does HORNY mean?
Made of, resembling, or hardened like horn; informally, sexually aroused.
Is HORNY a valid word?
Yes — HORNY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is HORNY?
HORNY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does HORNY come from?
From 'horn' (Old English 'horn', a hard pointed growth) + the adjectival '-y'; the sexual sense is a later slang extension dating to the 19th century.
What can HORNY teach us?
A word's oldest meaning is often the most honest; the body wears its history in calluses.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.