sad, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sad adj.

[note paradoxically that the earliest use of sad, c.1000, is quasi-positive, meaning satisfied or sated (although also weary or tired) and thence settled, firmly established in purpose or condition, steadfast, valiant, orderly, trustworthy etc. The negative connotation emerges only in the mid-14C; the positive use is found in sense 4 below]

1. mischievous, troublesome, corrupt; often of a place.

1668		Etherege She Would if She Cou’d V i: Pray Heav’n he be not jealous of your Ladiship, finding you abroad so unexpectedly; if He be, we shall have a sad hand of him when he Comes home, Madam.
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband III i: la. grace: Pray what words are you really forc’d to make use of? la. town: Why upon a very hard case, indeed, when a sad wrong Word is rising just to one’s Tongue’s End, I give a great Gulp – and swallow it down.
1771		H. Mackenzie Man of Feeling 28: My dear master [...] I have been told as how London is a sad place.

2. a general term of abuse, esp. for someone who is unfashionable by current teen standards.

1754		Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 589: You say you believe he hates truth [...] Is he a sad rogue?—Nobody will give him a good character.
1799		‘Diary of a Sporting Etonian’ Sporting Mag. Dec. XV 111/1: Went to Saunter’s room – found him sapping at Greek [...] sad fellow.
1873		Letters from Friend in Paris n.p.: She declared that I was a sad fellow, but she supposed that she must submit to all the freaks of my fancy.
1894		D.J. O’Malley ‘The Cowboy Wishes’ in Stock Grower’s Journal 7 Apr. 🌐 With my big white sombrero / I’ll make the dude look sad.
1902		Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: The unpopular man is referred to as a ‘nut,’ a ‘dope’ and a ‘sad one.’.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 97: You’ve got to learn to be nice to men who are sad birds.
1938		‘Sl. among Nebraska Negroes’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 317/1: Among adjectives [...] sad, unpleasant or homely.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1959		F. Norman in Encounter n.d. in Norman’s London (1969) 63: She’s a real gone, dad; and she’s never coming back. She thinks I’m a real sad square, ’cause I ain’t got the habit yet.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 112: Full of sad ideas about having a cult revolving round him.
1979		G. Swarthout Skeletons 194: If I had gone into the tower of Harding Courthouse a retarded child, I had come down from it a sad adult son of a bitch.
1987		G.A. Fine With the Boys 169: Sad, adj. Unsatisfactory, bad, poor.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 36: The sad cunt took the hump and fucked off.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 44: Sad lad’s mag Front.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] Mate, you are one sad individual.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 69: [H]e tryna be a big man but he ain’t gonna do it. That’s some sad shit.

3. very bad (of quality).

1754		Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 487: Can your daughter write?—She can a little; it is a sad hand.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 359/1: I’m ashamed of the dog-collar locks [...] they’re sad rubbish.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 138: Although her Grammar was sad, it made no Odds. Her Picture was on many a Button.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 93: sad, adj. Heavy, soggy. ‘The bread/cake is sad’.
1919		A. Baer Two & Three 3 June [synd. col.] Ten washers for a seat at the fight isn’t so sad.
1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 237: sad news—Verdict unfavorable to prisoner.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 182: I was appearing once a week on a sad radio programme called ‘Swop Night’.
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 259: sad (adj.): very bad. Ex., ‘That was the saddest meal I ever collared.’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 184/1: Sad. [...] 2. Bad; crude; bungled.
1986		R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk 129: Sad – pathetic.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 382: DeAndre flings the small, whte plastic bag. It catches the top of the fence and falls back into the alley. [...] Now Fran is laughing. ‘That was sad.’.
2004		IOL News (Western Cape) 26 Sept. 🌐 What’s the next sad lad fad?
2016		Guardian Sport 4 Oct. 1/4: ‘Boxing is the saddest thing I ever took part in’.

4. (orig. W.I.) very good.

1943, 1952		cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
1995		Eble Campus Sl. Dec. 5: sad – good, positive: ‘This is a pretty sad CD I just bought’.

In derivatives

saddo (n.)

1. a pathetic individual.

1954		Reader’s Digest Jan. 92/1: Nobody wants a saddo around. When you start to feel sorry for yourself [...] do something!
1999		Guardian G2 1 July 21: A bunch of desperate looking saddoes in leather jackets.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 344: You look a total wally if you dance too early but after one crucial song tips the disco over, you look a sad saddo if you don’t.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] That was the thing about saddos: there was always going to be one who was [...] savvy.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2002

C. Glazebrook Madolescents 61: Normally I’d jump out of a plane sooner than enter a saddo dive like that.

In compounds

sad apple (n.)

see under apple n.¹

sad-arse (n.)

a depressing individual.

2003		Guardian 15 Nov. 417/2: One is a cyber-surfer or a print-bound sad-arse.
2016		Guardian G2 30 Sept. 5/3: You called me a sad-arse .

sad-ass

see separate entries.

sad billy (n.)

see silly billy under silly adj.

sad bird (n.)

see sad apple under apple n.¹

sad case (n.)

(US teen/Aus.) one who tells unamusing jokes.

1949–51		in M. Daly Profile of Youth 172: I’m a blabbermouth [...] My girlfriends usually fool around and say something like ‘can’t you shut her up’ or ‘sad case’.
2001		Sydney Morning Herald (Aus.) 6 Jan. n.p.: So here’s a tentative guide to Sydney teenspeak: [...] Sadcase (A dag, someone who tells unfunny jokes).

sad cattle (n.)

(UK Und.) prostitutes, viewed as a group; gypsies.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sad Cattle, Impudent Lewd Women.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cattle, sad cattle, whores or gypsies.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

sad dog (n.)

a wicked, debauched fellow.

1706		Farquhar Recruiting Officer III ii: silv.: You are an ignorant, pretending, impudent coxcomb. braz.: Ay, ay, a sad dog.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 58: I have for this last six months been a sad Dog, and I must now hang like one.
1731		Harlot’s Progress (2 edn) n.p.: [T]he Funeral Pomp of Harlots in Triumph; Six Mutes, Sisters of the Trade; the Parson, a very Wag; the Clerk, a Sly-Boots; and the Undertaker, one of the Family of the Sad Dogs.
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 81: I suppose you think me a sad dog, Mr. Random, and I do confess that appearances are against me.
1759		O. Goldsmith Bee No. 2 n.p.: You have always been a sad dog – you’ll never come to good [F&H].
a.1770		T. Chatterton ‘Memoirs of a Sad Dog’ in Misc. (1778) 194: I was now almost persuaded to love her in earnest; but I was a Sad Dog to suffer revenge.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1832		S. Lover Legends and Stories 217: You’re a sad dog – worse than Larry Lanigan.
1835		Dickens ‘Mr John Dounce’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 244: Mr. Jones used to poke him in the ribs, and tell him he had been a sad dog in his time.
1849		Sam Sly 27 Jan. 3/2: Mr.—, although he has been a sad dog, is a perfect gentleman.
1851		Lytton My Novel (1884–5) I Bk IV 327: He was a sad dog.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1894		F. Remington letter 19 Mar. in Splete Sel. Letters (1988) 128: You are a sad dog.

sad fuck (n.) [fuck n. (3)]

1. a general term of abuse.

2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 207: He even has to verbal some squeegee refugee, some sad fuck who wipe a stain on the screen for 10p.
2011		I.D. Robertston Turtle Hawks 166: You must be some sad fuck. You don't have a big car? Hey! You sure are a sad fuck! [...] Jes’, man. You are the saddest damn fuck I ever did see.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1997

N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 40: Some sadfuck busker [...] starts in with his sadfuck act.

sad sack

see separate entries.

sad sack of shit (n.)

see separate entry.

sad sam (n.) (also sad sal)

(US teen) a failure, an unpopular individual.

1943

Chicago Trib. Graphic Section 26 Dec. 7/1: Jive Talk [...] Drips. Sad Sam (or Sal). Cold potatoes. Junior jerk. Junior mess. Jerk of all trades. Dracula’s daughter. Sad specimen. Zombie. Black widow. Lead pipe. Light operator.

sad vulgar (n.)

(UK society) a common, vulgar person.

1767		S. Bunbury letter to G. Selwyn 5 Nov. in George Selwyn & His Contemporaries 1 191: A very unpleasant affair has happened at Newmarket the last meeting. A Mr. Brereton (a sad vulgar) betted at a table where Mr. Meynell, the the Duke of Northumberland, and Lord Ossory were playing at cards [etc].
1883		St James’s Gazette 17 Aug. in Ware (1909) 213/1: He is a ‘sad vulgar’, as the ladies’ expression was in the days of George III; and there is something very droll about the poetical retribution he meets with.

In phrases

sadder than a map (adj.)

(US black) very bad, terrible, disgusting.

1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 259: sadder than a map (adj.): terrible. Ex., ‘That man is sadder than a map’.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
2015		T. Crawford (con. 1940s) That Trouble with Jack Ireland 382: On the radio the band’s chanteuse was crooning a version of Blue Moon that was sadder than a map.