The term spicy originates from the word spices. It refers to food that leaves a burning sensation in one’s mouth (Scoville). It was also used to refer to something lively or spirited and, according to the Urban Dictionary, the word spicy is also used today in reference to something scandalous, risqué, or even racy.
Let us follow the two threads:
The word spicy was first used by the father of English botany, William Turner. Referring to the citron in the 1568 version of Herbal, he comments that “the peel is spicy not only in terms of smell, but also taste.” One of the next references to spicy can be found in the work of Francis Bacon who was England’s Attorney General and Lord Chancellor, as well as a famous scientist – and as such the first one to receive a knighthood for services rendered. The list of his publications is long, but it was in A Natural History (which was published in 1627 just after he died) that Bacon mentioned fennel seeds which “are sweet before they ripen and after grow spicy”. For the next 200 years, spicy was used to describe something that smells of spices or is simply aromatic.
It was only in the 1800s that additional meanings were layered on the word spicy. Sports Magazine reported on all kinds of sports in England and in 1828 had a feature which included the words “We had a remarkably spicy team,” here meaning lively or spirited. In his 1844 novel, Parsons and Widows, Joseph Hewlett writes about the insinuating articles of a magazine which are written anonymously with indiscretions funnily but severely exposed. It caused a sensation because the articles were “so clever and so very spicy”. Around the same time, a horse which cost too much was described as a “spicy-looking nag.”
Over the last 20 years, there has been a leap forward with both threads of connotations. Spicy in relation to food is now used predominantly to describe foods that have heat-generating qualities. This is the result of the large influx of Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent to tourism to Asia and the experience of its spicy cuisine.
Spicy has also increasingly become a synonym for sexy. Now anything from perfumes, lingerie, even condoms are advertised as being spicy. It is doubtful that Turner would approve of such usage of the term.
