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Why is a good-looking or sexually attractive person called a 'snack'?

Young people often use it this way, and it's a sense listed in some dictionaries.

a sexually attractive person.
"it's clear from the pics that her new husband is a total snack"
[Oxford Languages]

(This funny video from Lily Singh (time 1:25) is where I first encountered the word used in that sense.)

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Alireza
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1 Answers1

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I've heard a bunch of taste-related words (scrumptious, delicious, yummmy etc.) used informally to describe someone who's attractive, so it seems that people often slangily associate foodstuffs with sex appeal.

Dictionary.com has an entry for the slang word snacc, and in the etymology, they explain when the original term began to get repurposed:

In the 2000s, snack emerges as slang for an attractive person (i.e., someone who looks sexy enough to scarf down like a snack). This sense of snack is recorded on Urban Dictionary and found on Twitter by 2009.

It's not too complicated as far as etymologies go. As an eloquent Redditer put it, "snacks are yummy. the person looks yummy."

The same idea is expressed in a little more detail on slang.net:

A snack is a person who looks attractive, almost tasty, which makes you want to eat [them] up, much like an actual snack.

Doesn't take a frog to make the leap between the two ideas.

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    Yes, +1, and if you want a noun also used in the same way, "dish" is fairly common. (M-W: "an attractive or sexy person") – MarcInManhattan Jul 26 '23 at 02:49
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    "Dish" has been a fairly common US term for an attractive female for at least 50 years. – Hot Licks Jul 26 '23 at 03:11
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    Note also *snackbar (n.)* (US campus) a girl- or boyfriend.
    • 1996 [US] Eble Sl. and Sociability 70: A ‘girlfriend or boyfriend’ was a snackbar, and go for sushi meant ‘kiss passionately’.
     – Gio Jul 26 '23 at 07:58
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    .... Eye candy. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 26 '23 at 11:12
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    I wonder about that spelling, snacc. And this: "It’s also internet slang used when cute animals are seeking or enjoying a snack". How embarrassingly dumb. :) – Lambie Jul 26 '23 at 13:48
  • It's essentially a British usage, but several decades ago Joan Bakewell was touted as the thinking man's crumpet**. But *He's yummy, She's a dish, Hungry for love,...* are so common I don't really see there was much of a question here in the first place. – FumbleFingers Jul 26 '23 at 17:22
  • @FF You made me laugh with that. From WP: After the release of the 1997 film Titanic, Kate Winslet was dubbed by one newspaper as "the sinking man's crumpet". Also, Bakewell herself dislikes the epithet (No surprise there!) I guess this Muir was referencing Christopher Hampton's "thinking man's television" quote (which must have been fairly popular), since it seems that it was only a few years after Hampton. – Conrado Jul 26 '23 at 18:16
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    Yes: lust, dehumanizing its object, thus often seeks to disguise itself as a fellow deadly sin, gluttony. – Brian Donovan Jul 27 '23 at 14:57
  • @Lambie - The spelling started as a Crip thing. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/succ/ – HippoSawrUs Jul 30 '23 at 03:53