WOW ~ Word of the Week ~ Sheep’s Eyes

Today is Dear Husband’s birthday, so he gets a WOW post with a slang term in his honor. Because I loves him. And because he does this (in a manly way, of course).

Sheep’s Eyes (noun)

Loving looks, attested from the 1520s. From the word sheepish (bashful). To cast sheep’s eyes at any thing means to look wishfully at it.

Interestingly enough, I found more portraits of men casting sheep’s eyes than women. Perhaps, as Lady Catherine accused Elizabeth Bennet, women’s:

“. . . arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.”
Pride and Prejudice, Volume 3, Chapter 14 (Chapter 56)

Cast those loving looks our way, gentlemen.

La Famille Gohin by Louis Léopold Boilly, 1787, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Couple with an Escaped Bird by Louis Léopold Boilly, unknown date, Musée de Louvre, Paris.

Fashion Plate Modes Parisiennes from La Nouveaute Journal, 1825.

Fashion Plate 2 Modes Parisiennes from La Nouveaute Journal, 1825.

Stealing a Kiss by Pierre Outin (1840-1899), unknown date.

Off for the Honeymoon by Frederick Morgan (1847-1927), unknown date, private collection.

The Courtship by Charles Green, 1878, Christie’s.

Admiration by Vittorio Reggianini, before 1938, detail.

And my favorite of all sheep’s eyes pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Slang term taken from the Online Etymological Dictionary and 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
• Pride and Prejudice quote found at Pemberley.com.