Lean and lanky

Lean = thin, in a nonpejorative sense.
Skinny = thin, sometimes in the sense of "too thin."
Lanky = tall + very lean.

I don't know who Yeo Ming is.

Elisabetta

If we are talking about the guy inthis page, I personally wouldn't call him lanky even though he is tall! A lanky person doesn't have the muscles this one has.

Lean and tall I'd say (since as Trentina already mentioned lanky means that someone is very lean. I'd call A. Lincoln lanky though)

A lean person probably still has muscles, but not "bulky" ones. It sounds very smooth, almost aerodynamic - a dancer is lean.

Lanky, on the other hand, carries slight connotations of awkwardness. It sounds like someone who's a little bony and has very long limbs. For example, sometimes boys get really lanky when they're 13-15. They hit a growth spurt and shoot up six inches, but their muscles take a while to catch up.

When I was a tall and skinny youth (and before babies measured 1 metre at birth) I was often called 'lanky' - but I was never called 'lean'. I would have liked 'lean', I didn't like 'lanky'

Lanky, on the other hand, carries slight connotations of awkwardness. It sounds like someone who's a little bony and has very long limbs. For example, sometimes boys get really lanky when they're 13-15. They hit a growth spurt and shoot up six inches, but their muscles take a while to catch up.

Perfect summation. An colloquial expression about a lanky person-- "he's all knees and elbows."

Yes, young lanky people can be awkward, but for lanky adults the connotation can be more positive-- the image of a toughened, outdoorsy type of man. I'm not sure you'd use the word for women, no matter how they were built.
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Yes, young lanky people can be awkward, but for lanky adults the connotation can be more positive-- the image of a toughened, outdoorsy type of man. I'm not sure you'd use the word for women, no matter how they were built.

Ah, good point. Yes, lanky does sound more complimentary for adults.

I'm trying to think of a good equivalent word that could be used for women, or is at least gender-neutral. What do you think of "wiry"?

cj427 said:

I'm trying to think of a good equivalent word that could be used for women, or is at least gender-neutral. What do you think of "wiry"?

Wiry people are short, aren't they? Unfortunately, women aren't supposed to be "all knees and elbows," and when tomboys grow to adulthood and retain a certain toughened quality, the terms tend to be negative. "Horsey" comes to mind, along with others that could be deemed homophobic.

It's the "outdoorsy" part that where language hasn't caught up to changes in gender convention-- one can almost sympathize with impatient intellectuals who try to impose terms of their own. If you call a man's face "weathered," for example, it connotes a kind of male beauty. Not the same for a woman.
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Wiry tends to connote "small." And women have been called lanky. It's not a gender-specific term, even though it's probably used more often to describe males.

Elisabetta

Wiry means short?? I had no idea...

bmo, I actually like the sound of "lean and lanky". It's a bit redundant, but with the alliteration it sounds nice. You may want to wait for opinions from the others, though.

Wait, giannid, which is the altered one again? Heh.

Although I realise it may confuse things a bit, the word lean always brings in my mind the phrase "lean mean fighting machine". While I could use this phrase for Putin in one of my not-so-generous moments giving a twist to the phrase's meaning, I wouldn't use it to describe him otherwise.
On the other hand I seem to remember he did somekind of martial arts or something? If that is so, and if Putin hides a well-toned body under these suits then "lean" can be the right word after all.

I agree that lanky doesn't sound right for a woman. If she is tall, I think you'd say she's "tall and" one of these:
Negative: skinny
Neutral: thin
Positive: slender; lean works for women too, I think, and implies strength.

Wiry means short?? I had no idea.

Just to clarify, wiry is not synonymous with short, and in fact, the Merriam-Webster definition doesn't even mention height:

2 : being lean, supple, and vigorous : SINEWY wiry figure of a long-distance runner -- Phoenix Flame>

But somehow, wiry often seems to be applied to persons who, in addition to having the characteristics described above, are on the small side.

Elisabetta

Possibly because "lanky" implies tallness, as we discussed above. A separate word is required for people who are sinewy, but short.

bmo said:

We can describe both a sprinter and a tango dancer lean?

I'd call tangos dancer lean if they also had faster dances in their repertoire. There's a voluptuary quality to that one dance though, and especially for the female partner, a body conducive to that concept would not be a detriment to doing the tango.

I guess some fans of the dance like roast chicken, and others prefer em "fryin size."
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Hi everyone, I'm studying the meaning of lanky and gangly. I don't quite understand why these two words associate thiness with clumsiness.

Just to make sure, lanky and gangly are neutral, right?

'Gangly' is even less neutral: it is definitely negative. It suggests someone who is awkward in their movements - as if their limbs are too long for them. Think of the skinny 6'3" fourteen year-old who doesn't quite know how to move in his newly elongated body.

Thank you so much! It's much clearer to me now!

lanky and gangly. I don't quite understand why these two words associate thinness with clumsiness.

I don't think they do. Our dictionary says "awkwardly ... built" and "awkwardly tall." This use of "awkward" is talking about how they seem out of proportion, not that they are clumsy. They are not "awkward and tall" - they are tall in a way that is awkward.

I don't think they do. Our dictionary says "awkwardly ... built" and "awkwardly tall." This use of "awkward" is talking about how they seem out of proportion, not that they are clumsy. They are not "awkward and tall" - they are tall in a way that is awkward.

Thank you for this detail! The online Cambridge Dictionary I'm using says it means "tall and thin and often moving awkwardly as a result", so I perceived the definition as describing not only the appearance but also the way one moves.