softcoren.adj.
/ˈsɒf(t)kɔː/, U.S. /ˈsɔf(t)ˌkɔr/, /ˈsɑf(t)ˌkɔr/ A. n.† 1. English regional (London). Domestic or municipal refuse of a loose, granular consistency; street sweepings, rubbish, or filth. Cf. hardcore n. 1. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1856 Morning Chron. 7 Apr. The premises..lay alongside the Regent's Canal, which afforded great facilities for the trading in dust and the other offals called ‘hard and soft core’.
1873 Once a Week 11 Oct. 324/1 These ashes were being sorted and sifted over into soft core, or loose rubbish that would burn.
1902 Times 7 Feb. 2/3 (advt.) The Council of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington are prepared to receive tenders..For the Purchase and Reception of..soft core and hard core picked from the dust heaps.
2. Softcore pornography.
ΚΠ
1973 Filmmakers Newsletter Mar. 48/2 I went to the coast with the film, I went to Cleveland with the film, and I had about six screenings in New York. I've showed it to major distributors of both hard- and soft-core.
1977 Time Out 17 June 47/2 Borowczyk's slightest and most commercial offering has provoked wildly different responses: great pagan art or ultimate soft-core?
1993 J. Green It: Sex since Sixties 168 Women don't like softcore.
2013 D. Andrews Theorizing Art Cinemas ii. vii. 154 In softcore, the most crucial labels were once Playboy, MRG, and New City.
B. adj.
Designating pornography that is suggestive or erotic but not explicit; of or relating to this kind of pornography; pornographic, but not extremely so.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > moral or spiritual impurity > indecency > [adjective] > pornographic > less obscene
soft1958
softcore1962
1962 Obscene Matter sent through Mail: Hearings before Post Office & Civil Service Comm. (U.S. House of Representatives, 87th Congr., 1st Sess.) 185 Our groups have never..explored..a proper definition of ‘hard core’ and ‘soft core’ pornography.
1972 Daily Variety 7 July 3/3 With all the hardcore competition, the old meagerly-budgeted softcore sexploitation pic has been floundering of late.
1973 Publishers Weekly 6 Aug. 67/3 Lots of softcore sex scenes as Bertha finds revenge.
1989 R. Tong Feminist Thought iv. 113 Soft-core magazines such as Playboy, which feature depictions of quivering young bunnies disrobing in front of elderly Great White Hunters.
2001 Guardian 28 July (Guide Suppl.) 13/1 The softcore porn genre was, ahem, hardening rapidly.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1856