LL-L "Semantics" 2004.01.20 (09) [E]

Tue Jan 20 21:25:07 UTC 2004

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From: frank verhoft <frank_verhoft at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language usage

Hi all

Two questions i've got...
Since quite a few months a new buzzword seems to have found its way
to the Flemish media: sexy. It's already a rather old loan, but until
recently it was mainly used with meaning (1) in underneath quote, at
least in my perception.

"sexy: adjective INFORMAL
(1) sexually attractive.
"He's very sexy"; "a sexy smile"; ...
(2) describes something that attracts a lot of interest and
attention:
"For most people grammar probably isn't a very sexy subject."
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=72235&dict=CALD

These days, the word is also used in the local media to denote
something that is attractive, meaning (2) (*without* sexual, sensual
or erotic connotations at all).

It really has become a buzzword, especially in the media, and often
when talking about the media. To give a very extreme example, the
earthquake that struck Bam, Iran, was described as "a sexy media
topic": major catastrophes and mindboggling misery attract viewers
(and hence money from the advertisers)... Needless to say -- i hope
-- that this statement was done in a very cynical way by somebody
attacking the news media.

Other examples:
(1) in Dutch:
"STAR 21 Bis moet "Sexy" zijn : de aantrekkingskracht van het
openbaar vervoer dient dusdanig te zijn dat mensen spontaan hun auto
laten staan.
Sexy noemen wij : frequenties afstemmen op behoefte, stipte
dienstverlening, groot comfort en democratisch prijsniveau."
http://www.cvp-jo.be/topics/standpunten/dossiers/verkeer.html

(2) in Dutch:
"Wij hadden een gesprek met Majo, waarin ze met vuur haar campagne
verdedigt om het imago van boek en schrijver cooler te maken. Of
zoals zij in televisiejargon zegt: "Boeken moeten sexier worden."
"Sexy is een woord wat je niet meteen verwacht uit de mond van Majo
de Saedeleer, huisbewaarster van Villa Kakelbont en directeur van het
Nationaal Centrum voor Jeugdlectuur (NCJ)."

Mind the usage of "televsiejargon".

My first question: i looked up the word in a few dictionaries and
found that "sexy" also is a loan word in German, Spanish (sexi),
Russian... What about other Lowlands languages, and what about Dutch
Dutch? Is it used too in its secundary meaning, or as a new media
buzzword in those languages?

The second, related question is about the English verb "to sex up",
as in underneath quotes:
* Now Kelly was the source for a BBC report that alleged that the
government had sexed up the dossier to help build a case to go to war
with Iraq.
www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/28/i_qaa.02.html
* Did BBC 'sex up' its own statement?
http://media.guardian.co.uk/huttoninquiry/story/0,13812,1034210,00.html

The second quote, the usage of '...' seems to suggest that the word
is still not a 100% accepted. I'm not an native speaker of English,
but the word came to my attention in articles concerning the
allegedly "sexed up" documents which popped up to "proove" a few
things concering Iraq.
On the other hand, this week i heard it on a BBC4 comedy show and it
was clearly a kind of parody on the verb, which implies a wide usage
of the phrase, and a search on internet shows a lot of sites in which
"sexed up" is applied to anything possible, but again, outside the
sphere of sexuality etc.

I tried to look up a few things, but does anybody have an idea how
old the verb "to sex up" can be?
Webster 1928 doesn't mention 'to sex up', but that may be due to my
bad searching strategy or due to the fact that is has been
digitalized by Christian Technologies Inc. ;-)
http://65.66.134.201/cgi-bin/webster/webster.exe?search_for_texts_web1828=

Anyway, can somebody help me out?

Best regards,

Frank

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Names

Frank,

I think that "sexy"and "to sex up" with this meaning started as Americanisms
in English not very long ago.  This and the fact that most people perceive
it as "slang" and "fad" and not quite socially acceptable (though rarely
perceived as obscene) in many contexts might account for it being thought of
as not yet established.

You will hear the expressions often, though, certainly in the American
media, yes, even in academia in casual contexts.  Someone might "sex up" (or
make "sexier") the abstract of his or her article to prevent the readership
from falling asleep before they start reading the actual piece.  It means
'to attract (popular) attention', 'to make catchy' or 'to make more
appealing to a wider audience', part and parcel of an American obsession
with turning education into "edutainment" and with not coming across as
"boring" and "nerdy," to "sell to the widest possible market."

I wouldn't be surprised if it started in Hollywood or in the publishing
world, originally in a sexual sense: "to spice (= sex) things up" to attract
attention and thus make more money by playing to folk's sex drive.  But
that's only my personal theory.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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