Of course, I have a general idea of what it means. It's one of those words that is used fairly regularly, and usually in the pejorative sense. Occasionally, when I've bought one of those health food bars, that look like something solidifed from the bottom of a hamster cage, I've complained that it tasted too "seedy." But, usually this has been because the main ingredients were sunflower seeds and other pips and vegetarian unpleasantness. However, I'm aware that seedy doesn't always mean, "full of, or containing many, seeds."
According to my faithful dictionary (well, I say faithful, but I know that a couple of other guys have flipped through her pages looking for good times, and other compound phrases) seedy means:
1) sordid and disreputable
2) shabby or squalid
3) unwell
All of which confirms my initial thoughts that it has negative connotations and its use in the pejorative sense is contextually appropriate to everything except the health food bar.
The article photograph for this piece is entitled, "SEEDY." The second headline is entitled "AN UNCOMFORTABLE BRUSH WITH THE SEEDY SIDE OF LIFE." The journalist muses as to whether or not the swingers club she is visiting will be boring or seedy (glad to see the writer wasn't going there with completely negative preconeptions).
I'm tempted to write here about the injustice of this style of journalism, and the blatant subjectivity of the reporting. But those facts are plainly obvious to anyone reading the piece. Anyone with half a brain can see that this was written not to inform, but only to denigrate swingers. Anyone with less than half a brain is ideally qualified to rewrite the article.I could say lots of things about the standard of journalism here but I think it's enough for me to wonder why the Scotsman don't put an apostrophe in the phrase swingers' clubs. I know possesives can be tricky, but I think the absence makes the text look "seedy." Although, that's just my subjective opinion.
This is the link to the article. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/In-with-the-swingers-at.3589972.jp But please beware of the consequences if you choose to read this. An intrepid reporter visits a "seedy" swingers club and then reports her shock at discovering swingers there.
Who would have expected that?
