Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗Containing or full of seeds. · Seedlike; having the flavour of seeds. · Having a peculiar flavour supposed to be derived from the weeds growing among the vines; said of certain kinds of French brandy. · Shabby, run-down, possibly connected with bad, dishonest or illegal activities, somewhat disreputable.
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”.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 3 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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"Containing or full of seeds.",
"Seedlike; having the flavour of seeds.",
"Having a peculiar flavour supposed to be derived from the weeds growing among the vines; said of certain kinds of French brandy.",
"Shabby, run-down, possibly connected with bad, dishonest or illegal activities, somewhat disreputable."
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