# Origin of "hot"="attractive"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 1, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728 "2005-07-01T17:37:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728/1 "2005-07-01T17:37:15Z")

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How long have people used the word “hot” to mean “attractive” or sexy-- as in the phrase, “She’s hot!” ?  
Also, the term “hot pants” for shorts-- how long has that been around? I am thinking early 1970s, but I may be wrong.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728/2 "2005-07-01T17:52:48Z")

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According to the OED:

> [@](#):
>
> c. Excited with sexual desire; lustful; of animals, ‘in heat’ (see HEAT n. 13). Also of a play, book, etc.: licentious. Phr. (U.S. slang) to have (or get) hot pants, to be (or become) aroused with sexual desire. Also, hot pants, a highly sexed (young) woman. Cf. senses 10b and 12c.
> 
> 1500-20 DUNBAR Poems xiii. 52 Thair cumis ung monkis…And in the courte thair hait flesche dantis. c1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 27 Very hoote and dyposed to lecherdnes. 1604 SHAKES. Oth. III. iii. 403 Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkeyes.

So it dates way back. The cites are rare until about 1892, and most of them date from the 20th century.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728/3 "2005-07-01T17:54:24Z")

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Addendum: “Hot pants” dates from 1936 in the OED, but did not mean an article of clothing until the 60s or so. The phrase usually referred to a sexually active woman.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-hot-attractive/310728/4 "2005-07-01T20:05:22Z")

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> [@gytalf2000](#):
>
> How long have people used the word “hot” to mean “attractive” or sexy-- as in the phrase, “She’s hot!” ?  
> Also, the term “hot pants” for shorts-- how long has that been around? I am thinking early 1970s, but I may be wrong.

The specific meaning of a man calling a woman “hot” to mean she’s what we today know as _sexy_ dates in print from the late 1920’s.

“Hot pants” to mean “short shorts” start to appear in Paris in 1969 and are avertised in NY in 1970.