Spornosexual

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A man who is athletic and fit while also paying close attention to his grooming, fashion and personal appearance
2. Describing a male who combines an active, sporty lifestyle with a polished, stylish and carefully maintained look
3. A heterosexual man who keeps himself physically toned and cultivates a fashionable image through grooming and dress

Etymology: Mark Simpson, the British journalist who had already coined "metrosexual" in the 1990s, declared the metrosexual dead in a 2014 Telegraph column and proposed a successor in the same piece. That successor was "spornosexual," a blend of "sport," "porn," and "metrosexual," describing the man whose body is groomed and displayed for effect, with gym-built muscle and carefully posed photographs rather than fashion sense alone. The word's three parts explain its meaning. "Metrosexual" had already captured the urban man who took care of his appearance, and "sport" and "porn" added the athletic physique and the image-conscious, sexualised display that Simpson saw in the male selfies and fitness photos of the mid-2010s. The blend puts the emphasis on the body as something to show off. The term spread quickly in the press, with a 2015 Straits Times article describing the spornosexual as a more hardcore, body-obsessed version of the metrosexual. It is now used both as a noun and as an adjective.