# UK Dopers, what would you think if someone were called "seedy"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 17, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066 "2021-03-17T06:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/41 "2021-03-18T21:18:03Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > do you actually hear or use it today In current use. Feeling a bit peaky myself ATM. Though consorting with seedy characters in sleazy bars is no longer a regular social outing. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/42 "2021-03-18T21:20:29Z")
If one of my friends is seedy looking, that is, both sickly looking and poorly cared for, I’d take it as evidence that they are seriously ill. It was different when I was young, because my seedy-looking acquaintances then were more likely to be hung-over or drug affected than seriously ill, and they’d be ok after having a drink and putting on clean clothes. If one of my friends is only sick, or only poorly cared for, ‘seedy’ is not a word that would spring to mind. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/43 "2021-03-18T21:23:52Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > It would never be applied to someone who is really ill. But, in the story, it was. That’s why I asked, as I was unfamiliar with the very ill use of seedy. > [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Though consorting with seedy characters in sleazy bars is no longer a regular social outing. If you did this more often, you would build up some natural immunities to the after effects. Go hang at your local dive, work towards immunity. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/44 "2021-03-18T21:33:26Z")
If was applied to someone who is really ill, that would be a very insensitive. Perhaps the character was being clumsy. Or if they were good friends, trying to be witty and ironic. Depends on the context. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/45 "2021-03-18T21:42:33Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > It is in common use in London. Soho still has plenty of seedy characters in seedy bars doing seedy deals selling sex or drugs or stolen goods. A place or person of low or disreputable character. > > Another use is seedy as in you have a hangover, lack of sleep, you have not washed, feel unfit and you are generally a mess. You might say you yourself feel quite seedy. Not a reflection on character, just a measure of the poor state you are in when perhaps you have rather over done the partying. Gone to seed and in need of some work to restore and revive and get up on your feet again. I am sure we have all been there. > > We don’t use the word sketchy so much, which I suspect has a similar meaning. I’m in London too, but if someone used seedy in your second way I’d be unsure what they meant. If someone said they were feeling a little seedy I’d assume they meant they’d inadvertently done something that appeared sleazy, not that they were ill. The meaning in the book in the OP is simply “ill,” though. You come across it in old books all the time - I’m sure I’ve seen it in an Agatha Christie, for example. It rings of between the wars to me, uttered by the same type of people who say things are queer and use the phrase what ho. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/46 "2021-03-18T21:52:44Z")
When you look very hung over and are feeling quite sorry for yourself, it is pretty clear what is meant by seedy when they refer to themselves. I’ve heard Australians use the word ‘crook’ in the same context. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/47 "2021-03-18T21:53:22Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > The meaning in the book in the OP is simply “ill,” though. You come across it in old books all the time - I’m sure I’ve seen it in an Agatha Christie, for example. It rings of between the wars to me, uttered by the same type of people who say things are queer and use the phrase what ho. This is part of what I was wondering when I asked if it was something people don’t use now to mean seriously ill but if their parents or grandparents used it that way. The story is vague about time and place, just somewhere in an African jungle when Englishmen used to traipse around Africa with a bunch of native folk to cart around all their stuff so they could have a proper tea. In the story they immediately understand seedy to mean ill. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/48 "2021-03-18T21:57:14Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I’ve heard Australians use the word ‘crook’ in the same context. Never heard that one either. 🙁 Some offshoot of crooked, I assume. I have to get out more. Or read more. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/49 "2021-03-18T22:01:35Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > Another use is seedy as in you have a hangover, lack of sleep, you have not washed, feel unfit and you are generally a mess. I’m a lifelong Londoner and I’ve never heard it used in this way ever. And I’ve been involved in plenty of hangover situations with people from all across the city (and indeed the UK). That doesn’t mean it’s not used like this, but I’d argue it’s not common parlance. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/50 "2021-03-18T22:08:00Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > When you look very hung over and are feeling quite sorry for yourself, it is pretty clear what is meant by seedy when they refer to themselves. > > I’ve heard Australians use the word ‘crook’ in the same context. Even then, I’d be unsure. Especially because if you’re hungover that increases the chances that you might have inadvertently done something that seems sleazy in retrospect. Plus if someone said it in text format you’d have even less context to go on. Didn’t mean to imply that you personally have never used it that way, though - even within one city, different people don’t always talk the same way. It’s just not something I’ve ever heard myself. I’d understand the ill meaning in an old book, but wouldn’t expect to hear it used that way today. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/51 "2021-03-18T22:14:14Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > This is part of what I was wondering when I asked if it was something people don’t use now to mean seriously ill but if their parents or grandparents used it that way. > > The story is vague about time and place, just somewhere in an African jungle when Englishmen used to traipse around Africa with a bunch of native folk to cart around all their stuff so they could have a proper tea. In the story they immediately understand seedy to mean ill. Yes, in that context the meaning is pretty straightforward. Ill, might be on the way to worse health but not necessarily at death’s door. To me it’s associated with posh people, but that might be because of the characters who tend to turn up in those books. Can’t imagine my own parents or grandparents ever using it to mean ill, but I could imagine a posh person’s grandparent’s using it. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/52 "2021-03-18T22:40:15Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > To me it’s associated with posh people, but that might be because of the characters who tend to turn up in those books. Can’t imagine my own parents or grandparents ever using it to mean ill, but I could imagine a posh person’s grandparent’s using it. Yeah, posh would fit this perfectly. Four Londoners from the same gentleman’s club traipsing around Africa. Can’t get more poshy than that! ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/53 "2021-03-19T00:35:41Z")
Well that’s the way I use the word and it seems well understood. Maybe the pathetic image I present when feeling shabby and run down is so convincingly inadequate that no-one could imagine I might be capable of anything more disreputable than over indulgence. I just had a peek in my Oxford English Dictionary and it gives two meanings 1. ‘sordid and disreputable’ as the core sense and 'shabby and squalid as a sub sense. 2. (dated) unwell. So I guess the second would apply if the context was historical and spoken by a public school educated chaps in colonial times. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/54 "2021-03-19T06:20:50Z")
Yes, the latter. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the “unwell” sense in the wild, and my parents were born before WW1 - they’d be more likely to say “peaky”. I suspect there may be a class variation here. Off at a tangent - a striking Scottish word for the “unwell” sense is “peely-wally”. (And “sketchy”, mentioned above, does appear to me to be used differently in the UK and the US. In the UK, I’ve only heard it used to mean “incomplete” or “rudimentary”, whereas I have the impression in the US it carries a more pejorative sense, for which we might use “dodgy”. And you might judge someone to be a dodgy character because they look seedy). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/55 "2021-03-19T07:00:01Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > Well that’s the way I use the word and it seems well understood. Maybe the pathetic image I present when feeling shabby and run down is so convincingly inadequate that no-one could imagine I might be capable of anything more disreputable than over indulgence. For your sake I hope that the people you hang around with do use seedy to mean unwell, otherwise they could have got a totally wrong impression of you! (I’m not serious, btw). ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/56 "2021-03-19T07:14:20Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > Maybe the pathetic image I present when feeling shabby and run down is so convincingly inadequate that no-one could imagine I might be capable of anything more disreputable than over indulgence. We’ve been meaning to talk to you about your pathetic image, but the time just never seems right. 🙂 > [@filmstar-en](#): > > So I guess the second would apply if the context was historical and spoken by a public school educated chaps in colonial times > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Yes, the latter. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the “unwell” sense in the wild, and my parents were born before WW1 - they’d be more likely to say “peaky”. I suspect there may be a class variation here. So, generally olden times stuff seems to be in the lead. > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Off at a tangent - a striking Scottish word for the “unwell” sense is “peely-wally”. Crap! Not heard of that either. I should get me some edumacation. > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > (And “sketchy”, mentioned above, does appear to me to be used differently in the UK and the US. In the UK, I’ve only heard it used to mean “incomplete” or “rudimentary”, whereas I have the impression in the US it carries a more pejorative sense, for which we might use “dodgy”. And you might judge someone to be a dodgy character because they look seedy) This seems right to me from a US point of view. I would also understand “dodgy” although I can’t say if it’s from reading books set in England or from use in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/57 "2021-03-19T09:15:30Z")
Dodgy are an extremely underrated indie band with a summery vibe. But it also means a disreputable person; an unreliable object; or a dangerous situation. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/58 "2021-03-19T10:32:01Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Off at a tangent - a striking Scottish word for the “unwell” sense is “peely-wally”. Huh, I’ve only ever heard that as meaning pale (or possibly weak?)- I used to work with a Scottish lady who would always request that her tea was ‘peely-wally’. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/59 "2021-03-19T12:17:33Z")
I stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066/60 "2021-03-19T20:59:27Z")
This whole thread is a pretty good example of separated by a common language. Thanks to everyone on their replies about seedy. At least everyone agreed on big woman’s blouse! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-what-would-you-think-if-someone-were-called-seedy/938066.md?page=2)