Bluto

English

Bluto (at left) in I'm in the Army Now (1936)

Etymology

Fictional character name for the antagonist of Popeye coined in 1932 by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -uːtəʊ

Proper noun

Bluto

1. A man who is large and muscular in top-heavy proportions, often combined with a comically brutish and aggressive personality.
   • 1986, Lee K. Abbott, Strangers in paradise, page 38:

     He was built like Bluto. "Who the hell are you?" he said.

   • 2008, Bret Lott, Ancient Highway: A Novel, page 152:

     For whatever reason, it'd taken her a little while to get out of the cab when they first got here, and when Chuck introduced me — she stood a full foot shorter than him, a tiny woman next to this Bluto of a man, a knitted green afghan over her shoulders, a white blouse and blue jeans.

   • 2010, Susan Wilson, One Good Dog, page 21:

     His pit bull parts thinned out his back end but gave him a Bluto disproportion in his front end.

   • 2011, Shaun Attwood, chapter 25, in Hard Time: Life with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in America's Toughest Jail:

     It wasn't the black loudmouth I'd expected but a Bluto of a man almost filling the entire doorway.

   • 2015, Maryann Bouco, chapter 4, in The Last Stand:

     The customers sometimes called him Bluto. He earned the nickname by his tremendous build and great strength.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Bluto.

Translations

the antagonist of Popeye

• Arabic: بلوتو (ar) m (blūtō)
• Marathi: ब्लूटो m (blūṭo)
• Portuguese: Brutus m

See also

• Bluto on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• U-bolt, boult