bawdy

Etymology

From bawd +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːdi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.di/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑ.di/
• Homophone: body (cot–caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːdi

Adjective

bawdy (comparative bawdier or more bawdy, superlative bawdiest or most bawdy)

1. Obscene; filthy; unchaste. [from 15th Century]
2. (of language) Sexual in nature and usually meant to be humorous but considered rude; ribald.

Noun

bawdy (plural bawdies)

1. A bawdy or lewd person.
   • 1983, Richard Hoyt, The Siskiyou Two-step, page 78:

     The Bawdies were girls who danced naked on a ramp in the middle of a room full of tables with tops the size of pie plates.

   • 2001, Bill Rinaldi, You Can If You Think You Can: The Power of Thinking Big, page 37:

     Our scholarly studies and discoveries about bodies and bawdies and the forbidden mysteries of S-E-X proved that participatory education had to be the very best.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “bawdy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Adjective

bawdy

1. soiled, dirty [from 14th Century]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book VII:

     whanne he had ouertaken the damoysel / anone she sayd what dost thow here / thou stynkest al of the kechyn / thy clothes ben bawdy of the greece and talowe that thou gaynest in kyng Arthurs kechyn

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)