h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And you were the skeevy guy! eeeeew! Gross!


Mikey

* walks by slowly... pokes at the word 'skeevy' with a very long stick.. decides to check with the Brit Eng folks http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F19585?thread=100569&post=2992283#p2992283 before saying another word *

I believe skeevy would be an American slang term, possibly unfamiliar to someone over the age of 35 or so, although I've heard that the original derivation is Italian, and that the American slang form was in New York quite a few decades back.

It seems to be most often used by adolescent to college-aged girls in reference to lecherous older men. Here are some good references on the 'etymology':

http://archive.salon.com/books/col/keil/2001/07/24/late_starter/
http://www.filtersmag.com/cgi-bin/Slang/read.tcl?string=skeevy
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/csrps.htm


Mikey

Hmmm... It seems no one at BritEng has ever heard of skeevy. This may be a good thing. Personally, I thought it might be a variant of 'scivvy', a lowly and potentially untrustworthy workhand.

The other origins suggested by your links - Italian or Hawaiin - seem unlikely, but there is no question the word has a phonetic resonance - skee-eee-vy - that is quite appropriate to the generally accepted meaning - creepily lecherous.

Anyway, at least now I know what it means so I can properly thank you for your appreciation of my talents. I am truly gratified that my brief appearance on screen was sufficient to convey that impression, which was of course the dramatic intention of the film .

While actually being 'skeevy' is far from the realities of my personal life, your choice of the word is a true compliment to my acting abilities, for which I thank you.


~jwf~