Specifically, Englishman to Englishman, " How is Bob?" “Bob is very seedy.”
I ask because I read a short story with that line and I had to think for a bit for it to fit in context.
It’s set in a unnamed jungle in Africa back 100+ years ago. Two explores meet and the above conversation happens. Apparently back in those days it would mean ill, which I wasn’t familiar with. US English just has the rundown definition as far as I know.
Now I just have to find a Denmarkian on the board to tell me what a “big woman’s blouse” means.
The person is down on his luck, financially, and has been for some time (or always) with the result that he looks poor, shabby.
The person is of morally dubious or disreputable character.
The person is in poor physical shape or is visibly unwell, with the implication that this may be the result of excessive drinking, partying, etc.
I think some of the pejorative senses of the word come from the idea of a plant having gone to seed, one of the consequences of which is that it has ceased to flower or flourish.
As a response to ‘How are they’, I’d take that as ‘Not very well but it’s probably not serious’. It is unusual to see it paired with ‘very’ though. Normally I’ve come across it as ‘a bit seedy’.
As a response to ‘What are they like’ -describing a stranger- if someone was described as seedy, they’re probably involved in some questionable dealings- selling stuff what fell off the back of a lorry, honest guv it’s the real deal. They could just be a bit disreputable looking, but it’s basically a non-specific ‘you wouldn’t want your daughter to marry them’ response.
“Big girl’s blouse” is in the UK a pejorative term for someone timid/anxious or reluctant to do something daft or risky. I wasn’t aware it had anything to with Denmark (though there seem to be a number of speech habits in the UK that are similar in Danish).
Denmark? It’s an English insult meaning week/ effete. And it’s an Australian comic series where the term is ‘owned’ by female comics. Australian comic Magda Szubanski is a ‘big woman’, so it’s also a play on Big Woman’s blouse and "Big woman’s blouse (the original meaning).
Agree with Melbourne’s definition of ‘big woman’s (or girl’s) blouse’. Both are used here in Aus. And yeah, it’s a gentle put-down for people of a reluctant nature, sorta like scaredy-cat for grownups.
And again, from an Australian perspective, seedy has a couple of meanings:
On being asked how one is, one could reply, “I’m feeling a bit seedy” which could mean anything from experiencing the aftereffects of a big night out, through to morning sickness, or suffering some sort of lurgy. In this context, it’s means you’re feeling unwell, but not at death’s door.
Then the other meaning of seedy, is describing a person, a location or a venue etc that is low-class, likely a petty crim or ridden with petty criminals, and generally an undesirable person or place to be associated with. Unless you’re into seedy people and places of course! Some of my most memorable times harken back to the days when seedy was definitely much more interesting than the alternatives. HAH.
I agree with @Staggerlee - as a Brit I regard seedy as a synonym for sleazy. I’ve never seen it or heard it used in any other context, and actually more to describe a place or a film or something rather than a person. I don’t recognise any of the other definitions that people have described, though perhaps usage has changed over the years or differs regionally.
Agree with this - if a place is ‘seedy’ I’d picture somewhere dark and dirty, with a few dubious characters hanging around in dark corners sniffing unknown substances. If a person is ‘seedy’, I’d picture the person hanging around in that dark corner.
I can get behind ‘seedy’ as a descriptor for feeling unwell, probably due to hanging around in too many dark corners sniffing unknown substances.
A ‘big girl’s blouse’ is a weak, scared person who refuses to, eg, go bungee jumping. A sexist term we should probably confine to history.
Thirded. I’m a Brit and I have never heard seedy to refer to a person, only places, and as a synonym for sleazy.
Whatever the word meant in the novel, it seems to have fallen out of use.
So it appears that seedy in the UK has the same meaning as here in the US. We talk about seedy hotels in rough parts of town and the seedy characters on skid row.
As for Big Girl Blouse we use a similar term to describe people who are timid or reluctant to do things, we tell people to put on their Big Boy Pants and just do it.
In the USA a woman might say (when bracing herself to do something unpleasant or scary), “I just need to put on my big girl panties and get on with it.” IOW do the grown-up thing, not the little kid scaredy-cat thing. “Big” meaning “mature” not “large-sized.” Sounds similar.
In the OP, I’d take “Bob is seedy,” to mean “Bob is down on his luck” or “has fallen on hard times.”
I would accept these two distinct usages as accurate.
You might describe yourself as feeling a bit seedy if you were unwell.
If you describe somebody else or a place as being a bit seedy as a synonym for sleazy
