seedy

C2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈsiːdi/ See IPA manual

Freq #24657

Meanings

1

adj
Dirty, run-down, and slightly disreputable.

They ended up in a seedy bar on the edge of town.
2

adj
Full of seeds.

The melon was too seedy to eat comfortably.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · dirty, run-down, and... sordidsleazyscruffy

Word family

Forms seedierseediest

Derived forms seedilyseedinessunseedy

Etymology

From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y. The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”.

*seh₁- Proto-Indo-European sedy Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# seedy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈsiːdi/
**Frequency rank:** 24657

## Meanings
1. Dirty, run-down, and slightly disreputable.
2. Full of seeds.

## Examples
- They ended up in a seedy bar on the edge of town.
- The melon was too seedy to eat comfortably.

## Derived Forms
- seedily
- seediness
- unseedy

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *seh₁-
- Root: sedy

## Etymology
From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y. The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”.

## AI Etymology
Seedy is from Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y. The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern adjectival form is built from the named base and affix. Important recorded forms include *seh₁- (Proto-Indo-European) and sedy (Middle English). Current senses include dirty, run-down, and slightly disreputable and full of seeds. The wider family includes derived forms such as seedily, seediness, and unseedy.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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