In this article, I will delve into what is the meaning of lewd and Etymology. The word ‘lewd” may not come up in your typical conversations, but you’re going to see a lot of it when you spend your time with anime and hentai. That’s because it’s often used by translators to make points that English doesn’t have the exact word to capture. Lewd has been around for a long time but is mostly relegated to legalese in the American English lexicon. Luckily, it’s easy to figure out its history to get a good sense of where the word comes from and the places you’re most likely to find it.
Definition of Lewd
The first things to look at are the official definitions of the word itself. Merriam-Webster defines it as an adjective that means obscene or vulgar. It also has it as meaning “sexually unchaste or licentious.” The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “disapproving or sexual in an obvious and socially unacceptable way.” If you check out the Collins Dictionary, you’ll see they define it as “showing, or intended to excite, lust or sexual desire, especially in an offensive way; lascivious.” They also have the British English definition as “characterized by or intended to excite crude sexual desire; obscene.” This all comes together to give you a word that means sexuality that’s especially dirty or crude and something that polite society would disapprove of. That makes it easy to understand why you get it in Japanese media so often. Sexuality in hentai and manga is typically something you don’t get to see in any usual circumstances. The sex acts and sexual situations are meant to be dirty and taboo and that’s what makes them so exciting. If you had to choose one word to encompass all of the sex in hentai, then you’d most likely land on lewd every single time.
Lewd and Ecchi
Lewd is often used to translate the Japanese word “ecchi.” That’s an abbreviation of “Hentai” and has a meaning very close to lewd. It essentially means playful, sexual actions. It can be used as an adjective to mean sexy, naughty, or dirty. Then it can also be used as the verb “ecchi suru.” That just means “to have sex” and it’s the farthest the word goes into sexuality. The thing to keep in mind is that ecchi isn’t the same as eros, which means erotic. It’s simply a way to define sexy things, much in the same way that softcore porn implies sex while hardcore porn shows it to you. If you think about a schoolgirl in a very short and see-through skirt, but not naked, you’re essentially imagining the visualization of ecchi. It’s also the same with visible panties or nudity that gets covered up by the environment. Even though it’s an abbreviation of hentai, it’s still distinct from it. When Japanese goes all the way into hentai territory, you’re talking about perversion and fetish. It’s still essentially the same, just with slightly different levels, much like the difference your brains makes between “sex” and “sexual intercourse.”
Lewd Games
Lewd games have been around since the beginning, and they come in lots of different forms. For instance, simple games like rock, paper, scissors have been turned into lewd versions for acutl to enjoy. That game was used in a 1969 TV show where contestants had to play it on stage. When someone lost, they had to take off an article of clothing and sell it to the audience. The first lewd video game can usually be traced back to Lolita PSK. This was a very simple game made for early home computers and has a BMP image of young girls sitting on a bed. The player’s goal was to undress her down to her bra and panties. If you went any further, the police would arrest you. Lewd games can be found on every adult gaming platform now. /R/lewdgames has a massive list of them that’s growing all the time. It’s most commonly associated with visual novels, but they can also be action games, adventures games, RPGs, and even FPS games. As long as there’s some form of obscenity, it can be considered a lewd game, and it very often is.
Lewd Anime and Artwork
Of course, something doesn’t have to be a game for it to be lewd. There are plenty of examples of lewd anime and artworks to check out. Highschool of the Dead is a 2010 anime about students sheltering in their school during the zombie apocalypse. That may not seem like a sexual situation, but all the characters find a way to make it sexual. Chivalry of a Failed Knight is another anime that doesn’t have a pornographic premise, but always finds a way to turn the scenes into lewd material for adults to enjoy. Lewd artwork can also be found everywhere, and it’s been created for centuries. Even without nudity, these works show you lewd material and that’s what passed for adult entertainment for a very long time. The Orgy, for example, is a painting from the 1700s that shows the open moments of a sex party. Everyone is clothed, but it’s clear that something sexual is going on. It’s also easy to find lewd artworks with a basis in anime. Manga girls are always going to be portrayed in adult situations and it can be accomplished with full clothing, saving it from simply being pornography.
Conclusion: Lewd Art is Everywhere
Lewd art can really be found anywhere and it’s easy to understand what it is. It’s an image or game that’s sexual, but not pornographic. Its main goal is to entice you and it does it with suggestion, rather than sex. You can think of a naked woman as porn, but a girl with a short skirt and visible panties as lewd. It’s used to translate the Japanese abbreviation for hentai and can found in lots of game titles and descriptions. If it’s meant to turn you on, and happens to be obscene, then you’re looking at something that’s lewd.