Pull up your socks
A Handsome Co-Worker
After camp yesterday, I was asked how it went. I said it was fine, but my co-teacher stole the show. He was the eye-candy. I was just making a little joke though. He is quite handsome and dressed in a suit. I’m the opposite and I wore just regular teaching clothes. Since this “camp” was more of a demonstration camp for principals and vice-principals, I probably should have dressed better. Luckily, I had eye candy next to me.
Meaning
Eye candy is something (or someone) that looks attractive, but there is not much underneath. It has a negative connotation. The person might be pretty but stupid. Eye candy can also be applied to art or things that look pretty but don’t have any deeper meaning. When I think of eye candy, I think of natureporn. As it turns out, I can’t search for that on my work computer. It is not actually porn, of course. It’s just beautiful nature photos.
Example: I go to the car shows to look at the eye candy.
Origin
Eye candy dates to the 1970s in America. It originally referred to a woman who was physically attractive but not too smart. Etymonline dates the descriptor to 1978. They say it is based on the euphemism for cocaine, nose candy (1930). Beautiful actresses on tv shows were called eye candy if their character wasn’t interesting or the acting was bad. However, the tv shows needed the eye candy to get people interested.
Nowadays, eye candy can be seen as a metaphor. Candy is sweet and full of sugar, but it is unhealthy. We call it empty calories because you aren’t getting any other nutrients with the sugar. You can see why eye candy has a negative connotation. Don’t use it as a compliment.
Korean Eye Candy
There is eye candy in Korea. It is called, 눈깔 사탕. It is a type of hard candy that is approximately the size of an eyeball. The literal translation of 눈깔 사탕 is “eye candy.”
See Also: Sweet Tooth, Apple of my eye
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Resources:
https://www.theidioms.com/eye-candy/
https://www.etymonline.com/word/eye-candy
https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-eye-candy.htm
https://koreanlanguagenotes.blogspot.com/2018/06/korean-eye-candy.html