About

Lewd is an English adjective used to describe a subject, act or remark as sexually vulgar, but not necessarily pornographic. The word was largely used by anime and manga fans to express their disdain for erotic depictions of certain characters starting around 2008. Over the next decade, the term became more commonplace on the web, although it remains closely tied to anime imagery.

Origin

According to Merriam-Webster^[1] dictionary, the first known usage of the word "lewd" dates back to 14th century England word "lǣwede," meaning "vulgar," originating from the Old English word "lewed," meaning "laical" or "ignorant."

The term has been used online since as early as 2008, often associated with critical comments about oversexualized anime and manga imagery. On February 8th, 2008, an anonymous user of 4chan's /a/^[4] made a comment on forced lewd scenes in anime breaking the 4th wall and pulling them out of the story, offering one of the earliest known uses of the term on 4chan (shown below).

That year on November 19th, an anonymous /jp/^[3] user uploaded one of the oldest known lewd reaction images (shown below, left) featuring an image of Eiki Shiki from the anime Touhou Project holding up a sign reading "too lewd," likely based on a comic where she describes Komachi Onozuka's breasts as "lewd" (shown below, right).

Spread

Over time, 4chan and internet users at large began creating lewd reaction images inspired by the Eiki Shiki one, typically featuring anime characters holding similar signs reading "lewd" or "too lewd" (examples shown below).

Over the course of the 2010s, the term has become commonplace online, used to refer to sexual content on a much broader scale, but still commonly associated with anime and manga. The term is a popular category on many fanart sites and forums. For example, as of March 2021, a Deviant Art^[2] search for "lewd" shows over 45,000 results, the majority being NSFW anime artwork.

Internet users continue to upload new too lewd reactions over a decade later as the meme has become commonplace among anime fans (examples from 2018, 2020 shown below respectively).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References