Raunchy Can Mean Sick, Icky, or Vulgar

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Bridget in Indianapolis.

Hey, Bridget, welcome.

Hello there, what’s up? What can we do for you?

So, I have another one of those, my family does it differently from his family questions.

Excellent, bring it.

So, it’s regarding the word raunchy.

In my family, raunchy means something that’s vulgar, almost certainly sexual, and not appropriate for the dinner table.

So you might tell a raunchy joke, right? That’s a sexual joke?

Bingo, precisely.

Oh, okay.

In his family, it means under the weather.

So the first time his extremely polite southern grandmother said that his grandfather was still feeling pretty raunchy, I about fell out of my chair.

I just did too.

Yeah.

Okay.

So where are they from?

They’re from North Carolina and Florida.

-huh.

Yeah, I have a hard time with that one.

I don’t know that meaning of raunchy.

I mean, I’m not going to deny that they can use it that way.

Of course they can, but I’m with you, Bridget.

I don’t know that one.

I didn’t know if there was anything in the etymology or in adjacent uses that would explain it.

So if he’s feeling raunchy, he’s feeling what again?

Ill, snotty, low energy.

Okay.

Oh, how interesting.

Well, here’s the thing is raunchy has undergone a transformation over its lifespan.

Sling does this all the time.

And earlier uses of raunchy were more about messy or ill-kempt or sloppy, maybe even sordid.

And it’s possible that this is an offshoot of that older meaning, which is just generally about,

I could see how you might feel unkempt if you’re sick or might feel seedy if you’re sick.

But it’s kind of stretching it.

There might have been a long road between that old…

It starts out not put together, and then in that Victorian way, that turns into sordid and not respectable.

Yeah, maybe.

It could be.

There’s a quick gloss in one of the dictionaries.

They say unpleasant is a possible early meaning of it.

But these are all bland and not very specific kind of negatives about this word.

Yeah, and their use is with livestock, too, like a cow with a bad temper.

Right, being raunchy.

Being raunchy or a horse.

Okay, and that certainly wouldn’t apply with a raunchy choke.

No, but I could see that a raunchy horse might be raunchy.

It would have a bad temper because it’s sick.

Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, okay.

So there could be some transfer that’s happening.

This is a really interesting one.

I think, Bridget, we’re going to have to see if the rest of our listeners have had this experience.

Have raunchy grandparents, clearly.

And not the kind bumping and grinding to trombone music.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you for the question.

We’ll see how it turns out, Bridget, all right?

Okay.

Have a good one.

Take care.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

If you can help Bridget out, if you’ve heard raunchy used to mean sick, not feeling well, ill, give us a call, 877-929-9673.

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