Sweaty

How to spell sweaty

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sweaty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sweaty mean?

1. adjectiveCovered with or smelling of sweat, or causing perspiration through heat or exertion.

Sweaty in a sentence

• He peeled off his sweaty shirt after the long run.

• The crowded train carriage felt hot and sweaty in August.

Where does sweaty come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grows from the Old English noun swat, meaning 'perspiration' or 'fluid given off by the skin', and its related verb swaetan, 'to sweat'. These trace back through the Germanic family to a shared Indo-European root that also produced the Latin sudor and the Sanskrit sveda, both meaning 'sweat', showing how ancient and widespread the idea is. The adjective sweaty was formed inside English by adding the familiar suffix -y, meaning 'full of' or 'covered with', so the literal sense is simply 'covered with sweat'. The modern spelling preserves the EA vowel from the Old English swat, even though it is now pronounced as a short E, which is the small trap for writers who might reach for an 'e' alone. Over time the word broadened from describing a damp body to describing damp clothing, hot rooms, and even, informally, tense or nerve-racking situations.

How the word is built

• sweat (from Old English swat: perspiration)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, covered with)