hot girl or hot guy

According to slang lexicographer Jonathon Green, hot, for “sexually attractive,” dates back to at least the 1880s, originally as applied by men to women.

But as early as the 1380s we can find evidence for hot meaning “sexually aroused.” Do you need us to spell out the metaphor? You know, burning with desire, worked up, all hot and bothered?

Some early evidence for hot girl is suggested in wordplay in the 1950–60s, but the term takes off in the 1970s, with hot guy later on the scene, well established by the 1990s.

In popular culture, one of the keys to the hot girl or hot guy is not only their sexiness, but also their unattainability. People will drool over hot girls or hot guys—perfectly figured, perfectly suave—but stumble over their words when they try to talk to them.

It’s important to note that there are significant differences in the ways hot girl and hot guy get used in contemporary culture. Hot girls often appears in the context of pornography. The 2015 Netflix documentary Hot Girls Wanted, for instance, exposes the darker side of amateur porn. Hot girls, meanwhile, get often criticized as being vapid and stupid, getting by on their looks alone.

Hot guy, while also the subject of plenty of fantasies, is often used is less disparaging or objectifying ways. Cosmopolitan magazine, for example, has run plenty of embarrassing anecdotes about things women did or that happened to them when encountering a hot guy. Hot guys may be portrayed as brainless six-packs, but oftentimes they have a sophistication not afforded to their female counterparts.