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.

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.

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):