# horny

Pronunciation: US say "HOR-nee" /ˈhoɹni/; UK say "HAW-nee" /ˈhɔːni/

## Adjective

1. Feeling sexual desire or sexually aroused, whether or not the body shows it. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Feeling sexually excited, or wanting to have sex.
   - _After weeks apart, they were both feeling pretty horny by the time he got home._
   - _Warm weather always seems to make him hornier._
2. Hard, thick, or tough like horn, and sometimes pale like it, as of skin or a growth.
   - Simple: Hard and thick like an animal's horn, as skin can become after years of hard work.
   - _Decades of farm work had left his palms thick and horny._
   - _The parrot cracked the nut open with its horny beak._
3. Arousing sexual desire in other people. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Making people feel sexually excited.
   - _She told her mates the bloke behind the bar was well horny and dared one of them to go and get his number._
   - _The music video was meant to be horny, but most viewers just found it silly._
4. Having a horn or horns.
   - Simple: Having horns.
   - _Growing up in Oklahoma, she caught horny toads in the backyard and let them go at dusk._
   - _The horny toad's spiky head makes it look like a tiny dinosaur._

## Origin

**Meanings 2, 4** — Already horny in Middle English, the word is simply horn with -y added. Old English hyrniġ, which meant "angular," is a similar formation, as are Swedish hornaktig, Dutch hoornachtig, and German hornig.
**Meanings 1, 3** — From horn, late 18th-century slang for an erection, plus -y. First recorded in the late 1800s meaning lecherous or full of sexual desire, it is now used of men and women alike.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/horny (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).