Tacky (person) (2024)

Hello everyone,

Does "tacky" meaning ''not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy (W.R)'' sound natural/correct in the examples that I created below? I have the impression that "tacky" isn't the ideal word in my examples, but it might be just an impression.

a. John is tacky. Look at those clothes he's wearing.
b. Mary is very tacky. The way she dresses and her taste in music definitely aren't good.

I think "tacky" works better in American English than in British English.

Thank you in advance!

Thank you very much.

What could be used in my context above to describe a person?

Thank you in advance!

The word is common enough in BE in my experience, but I don't think I've come across it applied to a person.

But you could say something like "Look at those tacky clothes John's wearing".

None of the standard dictionaries define the adjective tacky as applicable to a person rather than things, but that usage does seem to be used in American English. Maybe it’s quite new?

On Yahoo Answers, someone answered the question “What does a tacky person mean?” with: Tacky means brassy, cheap, flashy, garish, gaudy, loud, tawdry, trashy, and/or tasteless.

Thank you all very much.

but that usage does seem to be used in American English.

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Yes, Google shows lots of AmE examples made by native speakers.

Thank you very much.

The meaning intended with "tacky" is related to clothing or taste (in general, music, etc). "He's tacky" because he wears tacky clothes, or listens to tacky songs, has tacky taste in cars, etc.

I've just found a link on the Spanish - English forum that clears it up.

Corny, cheesy, tacky, touchy feely

USA (Native Speaker):

"tacky" means "in bad taste." It is definitely harsher than "corny" and also I wouldn't use them to talk about the same things. For example, an outfit is "tacky" as is someone's house decoration or even a person. "She's really tacky" would refer to her behavior.

Corny and cheesy are often used to talk about jokes, movies, songs, entertainment, anything that seems trite or cliched. Cheesy, being the uglier word, always sounds a little harsher to me than corny.

Touchy-feely is often used in a patronizing way, to mean someone or something overly emotional or New Age.

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It's clear now.

tacky adj1
Also sp tackey [tacky n 2]
1 Of poor quality, shoddy, run-down; cheap, common; in poor taste.
2 Of a person’s clothing or appearance: unfashionable, dowdy; untidy; gaudy, tawdry. scattered, but chiefly South, South Midland 
Cf slouchy (at slouch n)
3 Of a person’s behavior: uncouth, ill-mannered. chiefly South

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Source: Dictionary of American Regional English

When I have heard "tacky" used to refer directly to a person, it was a judgement of the person's behaviour, not to his/her clothing.

She's tacky. = She is vulgar, she behaves badly.
Her clothes are tacky. = She dresses badly (but she may be a nice person).

Xavier da Silva said:

I think "tacky" works better in American English than in British English.

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So do I, if you're talking about people, as the others have said.

Thank you all very much.

So if I want to say that someone's taste is tacky (in general: clothes, music, etc) in everything, what sould I use? Maybe "she has bad taste" as a way of generalizing. For example: Mary has very bad taste. Many of her friends say that too.

Thank you in advance!

Someone who generally lacks taste is someone without style.

“Mary has no style.”

I've just found an adjective here that might fit: unfashionable. It's from a text on the American series 'Stranger Things'.

''She’s awkward, she’s unfashionable.'' (Item #6: 10 Lingering Questions We Want Answered in 'Stranger Things' Season 2)

: Is "unfashionable" a natural/idiomatic substitute for "tacky (person)?

Thank you in advance!

elroy said:

I don’t see those as neutral. They are decidedly negative value judgments in my opinion.

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I said "rather neutral"! Not nearly as negative as "tacky". Most people have very little style and few people are really fashionable.

Okay, I don’t see them as “rather neutral.”

The issue for me is not that these are more neutral than “tacky”; it’s that I don’t think they have the same meaning as “tacky.”

From Dictionary.com:

tacky
adjective
US (of a person) dowdy; seedy

elroy said:

it’s that I don’t think they have the same meaning as “tacky.”

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That was exactly the point of my post. I explained the meaning of those two words to show that they mean something different.
Part of "not having the same meaning" is that they are not equally as offensive. If they had the same meaning, they would be equally negative/positive.

So we agree that they have different meanings. I still disagree that “unfashionable” and “has no style” are “rather neutral.”

Whether they are more or less negative than “tacky” is a pretty much unanswerable question, in my opinion, since the meanings are so different. It’s comparing apples to oranges. It’s like saying, what’s more negative, “ugly” or “annoying”?

elroy said:

So we agree that they have different meanings. I still disagree that “unfashionable” and “has no style” are “rather neutral.”

Whether they are more or less negative than “tacky” is a pretty much unanswerable question, in my opinion, since the meanings are so different. It’s comparing apples to oranges. It’s like saying, what’s more negative, “ugly” or “annoying”?

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I meant "rather neutral in comparison to tacky," perhaps I should have said "comparatively neutral."
In the question that started this, the poster was referring to someone's clothes. I think the words are quite comparable in that context. As we always say in this forum, context is important. Do read things in context and don't fixate on individual phrases out of context.

Thank you all very much.

I wonder what would make you think it might be.

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The context I provided in #17 (with the text on the link, including the unfashionable girl's picture).

Her clothes are tacky, she has bad taste in clothes and glasses. The author of the text probably said ''She is unfashionable'', because "she is tacky" isn't correct English in this context.

Hildy1 said:

When I have heard "tacky" used to refer directly to a person, it was a judgement of the person's behaviour, not to his/her clothing.

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Several thumbs up for Hildy on this. Someone who is tacky has a behavior problem. They are boorish (in a certain way) in social situations. That might be reflected in the clothes they wear but the clothes would only be a symptom. The real problem is the way they act. Taking flowers from a funeral because "the dead person doesn't need them" would be an example of being "tacky as hell".

Unfashionable and tacky are completely unrelated. Unfashionable means not caring about current fashions (or not having the money to afford them). Tacky means dressing like a hooker at a black tie dinner.

Thank you all very much.

What I meant on #27 was that someone who's always wearing tacky (things - clothes, hair, glasses, etc) is someone who is unfashionable. The picture and the text (by a native) on #17 say this.

There's no denying it.

Nowhere in the link is the word "tacky" used. Only the word "unfashionable". And that word certainly fits the picture. "Dowdy" would fit there, too. But, in my lifelong experience with the word "tacky", it would not. Someone whose dressing style is dowdy would be almost the opposite of someone whose style is tacky.

Here are entries from the WR dictionary:
tack•y2 (tak′ē), adj., tack•i•er, tack•i•est.

1. not tasteful or fashionable;
   dowdy.
2. shabby in appearance;
   shoddy:a tacky, jerry-built housing development.
3. crass;
   cheaply vulgar;
   tasteless;
   crude.
4. gaudy;
   flashy;
   showy.

I honestly have no idea why dowdy is in definition 1. Tacky is subjective but everyone I've ever heard use it is intending definitions 3 and 4. None of those fit the girl in the picture at all.

The problem with the rest of def. 1 is that it is so vague. You can be not tasteful or not fashionable in many different ways. The emphasis on tacky should be "not tasteful". A person who is a tacky dresser violates the (socially expected) dress code by actively wearing inappropriate clothes for the occasion. Their clothes are gaudy, flashy, or showy, they show too much skin, dress in the wrong clothes for their age and environment and generally give the impression of lacking refinement and class. They might wear too much make-up that's too colorful. The word tacky might sometimes be used to snarkily criticize someone who is wearing old clothes that used to be very fashionable but are now out of date. But they did use to be fashionable and were meant to be fashionable. But that's doesn't fit the girl in the picture.

Someone who is dowdy is plain instead of flashy. Their clothes are conservative and old fashioned. They don't show "enough" skin. They dress too old for their age, not too young, so they are unfashionable in the opposite direction, for being not adventurous enough. The might not wear any makeup or do their hair in any way that's considered attractive or in style. They don't have an ounce of "sexiness" to them. Those traits, and that type of "unfashionableness" describe the girl in the picture. Her clothes were never fashionable and never intended to be. They were always meant to be plain, as is her hair style. (See the word "frump/frumpy" as well.)

Like I said, tacky is subjective. But here's a picture I found of a pair shoes. To me they are tacky. Anyone wearing them in normal life I have to wonder about. But you would never catch the girl in the picture wearing them, I'm certain.

Xavier da Silva said:

What I meant on #27 was that someone who's always wearing tacky (things - clothes, hair, glasses, etc) is someone who is unfashionable. The picture and the text (by a native) on #17 say this.

There's no denying it.

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Unshionable clothing and tacky clothing are not the same thing, or at least not necessarily. Tacky means 'cheap and nasty'. Unfashionable clothing is not necessarily tacky.