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Just spent a ridiculous amount of time researching where the "dark" in "tall, dark, and handsome" originates and why.
I wish I had access to the OED, but since I don't, the next best thing is this 2007 MetaFilter entry quoting the OED: https://ask.metafilter.com/78215/Tall-dark-and-handsome#1161736
I found this part interesting - that the "first citation of the phrase [occurs] in 1906, but it seems to have become a cliché by the time the 1958 citation."
My assumption was that it was a white way to refer to darker skin tones, which is kind of correct, but seems to be pointing to ethnic groups that were at one time (like in the early 1900s) not considered white, for example, Mediterraneans such as Italians and Greeks.
Lots of literature refers to groups of "Black Irish" or "Dark Scots" in contrast to the ruddy Celts, but the D in TDH doesn't really suggest that either.
A lot of the discussion about the origins of "TDH" revolves around another term that is widely considered problematic today: "swarthy."
"Swarthy" is basically an old timely dogwhistle to describe any person that isn't white, and has been used in both derogatory and complimentary contexts. Best case scenario is that it's semantically used to indicate mystery and seduction. Or, exoticism.
The Old English root of "swarthy" is "sweart" or "black."
Also interesting, in Biblical translation, "swarthy" was largely understood to mean "Palestinian."
So then it turns out that "tall, dark stranger" is a much older idiom that precedes "tall, dark, handsome" by about 200-300 years.
"Dark" in this context was meant both literally and figuratively. And in some cultures, apparently the tall, dark stranger was a symbol of good luck (as opposed to a scary Viking showing up in your life). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-foot
So, no conclusions based on this deep dive other than that language is telling and linguistics is usually a reflection of who wins wars big and small.
One thing that piqued my "racism in everything" ears is when I was trying to find a definition of swarthy, and here, it is defined as "darker than white, lighter than tawny." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swarthy
Here's Ben Franklin: "the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so..."
"And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People"
There's a lot of speculation that it's all about "darkness" as a stand-in for calling out someone who is "sexy," which, sure. But it would also be dishonest not to acknowledge that we also ascribe evilness to darkness. So danger = hot = dark?
Old timey people should have spelled it out better for us. When are you using horny euphemisms and when are you using racist euphemisms, and when is it both. It would make it easier on us here later. Aimless research inspired by @ulychirp today.
Two more things: TDH was at one time also used to describe women. In addition to tall, dark stranger, it also seems to be adjacent to another earlier term, "high, wide, and handsome." http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21992
"High, wide, and handsome" is an awesome descriptor imo. It appears to be a positive term that originally described horses that jumped to describing a human with a great body and/or someone doing really well in life. http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21985&p=71632
If you're described as riding high, wide, and handsome, someone is appreciatively saying you're probably a great time in bed.
Thanks for reading this session of horny amateur linguistics.
Coda: By all accounts, TDH rose in popularity after the movie of the same name hit in the 1940s. It was a throwaway mobster movie starring Caesar Romero, who came to fame starring in "Latin lover" roles (hm) and is maybe best known for his role as Batman's Joker on TV.
Romero was a Cuban and Spanish New Yorker, called "the Latin from Manhattan," and is said to have spent his 60 years in early Hollywood a closeted, gay REPUBLICAN REAGAN-SUPPORTING bachelor who came out just before his death in 1994.
