To be a bit concerned about someone about someone calling my daughter this

[Fashionista22]

We were at a family party and someone that we don’t know very well (but seems was quite friendly and nice) called my daughter a ‘saucepot’. I didn’t think much of it at the time but I googled it later and found out it was a phrase to describe someone being sexy. He’ll be at another event in a couple of weeks..AIBU to find it a bit weird and want to keep more of a distance?

That is entirely different.

And revolting

No. It really isn't.

Yes. I can definitely remember older people also saying "There were boys hanging around outside giving him sauce" or similar. Like a meaning of "lip" or backchat and very much associated with delinquent youth, usually male.

"Saucepot" meaning "minx" is also a common usage.

So could be either?

Oh stop.

You absolutely are trying to besmirch the poor man.

It has more than one meaning then. I've only ever heard it used to mean cheeky, especially when describing a 2 year old.
Not so keen on the tickling...propably innocent, but men in their 40s should know better than to tickle young children they've just met...

Although you say it was a family party so was he a relative? That might account for the familiarity, but really, men should know how careful they need to be these days.

I think we're going to get a long drip feed with increasingly inappropriate stuff that OP "didn't think much of at the time".

I've been on the bus and overheard an older woman calling a baby boy in a pram "dead sexy" I thought I'd misheard until she repeated "Aww you're dead sexy aren’t yer, sexy boy"
Absolutely grim to me, but no one else was remotely bothered.
It probably a regional thing but that doesn't make it okay. People old enough to know better should stop and think.

I think YABU, for me someone who is a saucepot is someone cheeky, and totally acceptable to use for a 2 yo.

That is a bit cringe, but I've seen/heard 'sexy' used for non sexual 'great/good looking/attractive/desirable in a materialistic sense...

I have called a horse 'sexy''... he was, huge, shining, beautiful... I was not sexually attracted! I have heard horse people use it in this context plenty.

I have heard people use it to refer to cars, motorbikes, computers, phones... fairly sure no one was physically attracted to any of those.

Even so... mm, for a child... still cringe!

But your version isn’t even in the dictionary

saucepot (pl. saucepots)

1. A pot used to make sauce.

• April 4, 2009, Corey Mintz, Beitzah, Toronto Star:
• "For tomatillo sauce, warm oil in a small saucepot on medium heat."

1. (slang) A woman who behaves in a titillatingly saucy manner.

• March 9, 2013, Jana Falkenberg, Love, Sex And Other Disasters: My Adventurous Search For The Man Of My Dreams:
• "Thank God I was not the only sex-mad precocious little saucepot around!"

https://www.wordsense.eu/saucepot/

Yep.

People have already posted links to legitimate dictionary definitions

What, dictionary.com? Ok 😂

This is exactly how I'd hear it, it's a word you'd hear in a carry on film.

Of course. She's got people wound up and going already.

I'd only ever heard of saucepot naming cheeky and sassy.

You learn something new every day.

And pp posted definition of ‘saucy’ which is different. Who are you trying to kid?

People in the west country years ago might have referred to a little girl as a 'little tart', which I don't think would go down well today either. Language has regional variations and its connotations change over time.

Well, 'sassy' is a derivation of 'saucy' and both meant and still mean 'cheeky and to have a certain bold attitude'. Both terms are often used in a more or less positive way.

However, there is another sense of 'saucy' which means 'sexually suggestive' often in a light hearted way. For example, certain postcards could be 'saucy' or you could buy 'saucy lingerie' and so on. 'Sassy' does not usually carry such connotations.

Personally, if someone called something 'saucy' , I would immediately interpret this as meaning 'sexually suggestive in a humorous way' because I was brought up in a generation and a place where it was almost exclusive used to mean this (unless you were referring to food). So, if the person who made this remark is over fifty and British (I believe 'saucy' does not have the sexually suggestive connotations in most varieties of North American English, but I may be wrong), I would hope they had meant to say 'sassy'.

It’s clearly one of those phrases that is gradually changing its meaning. OP can probably tell from this man’s demeanour how he meant it. I certainly wouldn’t be rushing to think there was something off if an older person used it.

I used to think it was weird too but where I live now, (Essex), people use it to mean sassy or cheeky with regards to small children. It was used about my DDs by men and women regularly without any creepy overtones. I agree it’s a bit icky though, I never liked it.

@Saschka I agree with you that it is taking on a new meaning. That doesn't mean that the old meaning is redundant- at least yet.

Perhaps it will be one day. In the meantime, none of us know what the man concerned meant when he said it. Personally, I would be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt if otherwise he seemed nice.

I think he meant cheeky or bold and that's how I'd take it.

I would have thought he meant she was a bit of a cute, cheeky chops in the absence of any other creepy signs.