cor·pu·lence (kôr py -lns)n. The condition of being excessively fat; obesity. [Middle English, corporality, from Latin corpulentia, corpulence, from corpulentus, corpulent, from corpus, body; see kwrep- in Indo-European roots.] |
Corpulence
bay window Paunch, protruding belly, pot-belly. The visual image is of the type of window which projects outward in curved form, creating a bay or recess within. The term is an Americanism of long standing.
Since his bay window began to form … (Cimarron News, November 27, 1879)
beer-belly A protruding abdomen, supposedly caused by excessive indulgence in beer. The term has been in popular slang use since 1920.
black-silk barge British slang for a stout woman. This uncomplimentary comparison of a woman’s physique to a large, flat-bottomed vessel generally used for transporting freight needs no further explanation.
broad in the beam Having disproportionately large hips or buttocks; hippy; steatopygous. The greatest breadth of a ship is called its ‘beam,’ from its transverse timbers or ‘beams.’ The term is thus similarly applied to the width of a person’s hips or buttocks. Though most often used of women, early citations show the word was first used descriptively of men.
He stood watching disgustedly Bigges’ broad beam. (H. Walpole, Hans Frost, 1929)
butterball A plump or chubby person, especially a short one. Used figuratively since 1892, this mildly derogatory term compares a person’s physique to an individual serving of butter molded in the form of a ball.
German goiter A bulging stomach, usually the result of excessive beer intake; a beer-belly. Goiter is a thyroid gland disorder manifested by protuberant swelling about the neck. Similarly, German goiter is a distention of the stomach due to the consumption of copious amounts of beer, a beverage that Germans particularly enjoy.
pot-belly A protruding abdomen; a person with same. This common term, coined by analogy to the rounded pot, dates from the early 18th century.
spare tire A roll of fat about one’s middle; paunch, pot-belly. Such an excess of adiposity visually resembles a tire. The term has been around since 1925.
tun-bellied Extremely obese, gargantuan, elephantine. In this obsolete expression, tun ‘tub, vat’ alludes to rotundity. The phrase appeared in William Cartwright’s The Royal Slave (1639):
Some drunken hymn I warrant you towards now, in the praise of their great, huge, rowling, tun-bellyed god Bacchus as they call him.
| Noun | 1. |  corpulence - the property of excessive fatness |
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