"She's a Betty"?

[Johnny_L.A]

@kayaker

I remember a guy who, when he saw an attractive female, would say, “Helllooooo, Betty!”.

No idea where it came from.

In high school a classmate would see an attractive female and say, ‘Oh, Emma!’

[ZipperJJ]

@Telemark

From http://www.jasa.net.au/study/cslang.htm:

7. a Betty = a gorgeous woman-- perhaps timeless. This derives from the 1930s and 40s film star Betty Grable. She was the original ‘pin-up’ girl. Thousands of soldiers in World War II had pictures of her to ‘pin-up’ in their Barracks. She had particularly beautiful legs. Part of her fame was associated with the fact that she had her legs insured for $1million - a lot more money in the 1940s than it is today.

Not sure of the veracity of that cite, I also associate it with surf culture.

FWIW there was a bit on CBS Sunday Morning this week about the Betty Club in Nebraska (NYT article from 1998) and they mentioned the above definition in the story.

[ecoaster]

In my high school (the late 90s) people called a hot girl a “bitty/bittie”, not sure if this is derived from Betty but Urban Dictionary sure has a lot to say on the matter…