You could go to a good salon and get a makeover. Then you would look and feel hot. Maybe that good-looking someone you have been trying to "catch the eye of" will come up to you with a big smile and say, "Wow, you look hot". Is that good?
Can coffee or soup look hot? Yes. Can a car look hot? Yes. Does it mean the same thing when you say soup looks hot compared to a car looking hot? No. Not usually.
And what if someone yells out their car window, "Hey, Hot Stuff!", is that the same as someone carrying a bowl of steaming food yelling "Look out! I'm carrying hot stuff"?
---- Hot has two main meanings in English today. 1) It can be literal, suggesting high temperature as in, "It is 30 degrees Celsius outside. The temperature outside is hot". 2) It can be used figuratively suggesting sexiness/attractiveness or excitement of some kind. That is how a new, shiny car can look "hot". This means the car's appearance is exciting to the viewer. It is similar to actual high temperature "hot" because when we get very excited about something our physical temperature usually raises.
Sometimes English is very confusing, especially when colloquialisms (words or phrases used in casual conversation) are involved.
1) "You don't look so hot." - This is said to someone who looks ill or very unhappy about something. If your hair is a mess and your nose is red because you are sick, then someone can tell you that you "don't look so hot". You do need the word "so" in the statement. Otherwise, your statement would be "you don't look hot" which could be understood as temperature "hot" or attractiveness "hot".
If you are feeling sick after eating a meal, you could say "I don't feel so hot". This suggests that you are ill.
2) "I feel hot." OR "You look hot."- Depending on the circumstances, this can suggest either temperature or attractiveness. English frequently depends on the situation in which it is being spoken and who is listening to the speaker.
If you say that you are feeling "hot" when you are outside in a park, it seems obvious that you are describing your feeling of high temperature.
However, if you say you feel "hot" when you are wearing your best nightclub clothes, then you mean that you feel sexy or very attractive in those clothes. If you tell your friend that their new hairstyle looks "hot", you again are talking about attractiveness.
3) "Hot Stuff" OR "hot stuff" - "Hot Stuff" is an expression from the seventies. You would use it to describe anyone looking very attractive.
If you are talking about carrying some "hot stuff" into the dining room, you are talking about something that has a high temperature. For example, if you tell your child to not touch the oven door because it is "hot stuff", you mean the temperature is high and therefore dangerous.
4) to "catch the eye of" someone - This is an expression based on a literal movement. If you are trying to attract someone by wearing sexy clothing or if you are trying to attract someone's attention by waving your arms in the air, you are trying to catch their eye. The physical movement of someone turning their head or moving their eye so that they can focus on you (or something else interesting) is termed "catching their eye" because their mind and focus are held (caught). You could ask your friend where they bought their new hat. Your friend might say, "I was walking to the train and while I was passing a shop, the hat caught my eye". This means that your friend's focus was shifted, not by any specific action taken by the hat, but by its appearance (colour, style, shape, etc.).
No comments:
Post a Comment