Wiktionary

embonpoint

See also: Embonpoint

English

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WOTD – 10 June 2011

Etymology

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Borrowed from French embonpoint.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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embonpoint (countable and uncountable, plural embonpoints)

  1. Plumpness, stoutness, especially when voluptuous.
    • 1911, J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy:
      She was slightly inclined to embonpoint.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
      The beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her queenly shoulders and heaving embonpoint.
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 1:
      The patient's physicians had always allowed him to indulge a gargantuan appetite, countering his intake and regulating his embonpoint by a heroic diet of purges and enemas.

Translations

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Adjective

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embonpoint (comparative more embonpoint, superlative most embonpoint)

  1. Plump, chubby, buxom.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:overweight, Thesaurus:voluptuous
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 294:
      "Though it is six years since I have seen you," exclaimed Anne, "you are not the least altered; instead of that, you are handsomer than ever; your being rather more embonpoint suits you, and your complexion is brilliant to a degree."

Translations

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French

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Etymology

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Univerbation of en bon point.

The rule in French is to write ⟨m⟩ instead of ⟨n⟩ before ⟨m⟩, ⟨p⟩ or ⟨b⟩ – here the rule is applied to the first ⟨n⟩ but not the second, since it does not apply to words derived from bon; compare bonbon, bonbonne and bonbonnière.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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embonpoint m (plural embonpoints)

  1. plumpness, stoutness
    Synonyms: obésité, surpoids
    • 1844, Honoré de Balzac, Modeste Mignon:
      Quoique La Brière fût alors mince, il appartient à ce genre de tempéraments qui, formés tard, prennent à trente ans un embonpoint inattendu.
      Although La Brière was slim then, he has one of those constitutions which develop late and take on an unexpected plumpness at the age of thirty.
    • 1924, Emmanuel Bove, Mes Amis‎[1]:
      La patronne s’appelle Lucie Dunois. Son nom, en majuscules d’émail, est cimenté au vitrage de la devanture. Il manque trois lettres. Lucie a l’embonpoint d’un buveur de bière.
      The owner is called Lucie Dunois. Her name, in enamel capital letters, is stuck to the glass of the shop window. There are three letters missing. Lucie has the stoutness of a beer drinker.

Further reading

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Swedish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French embonpoint.

Noun

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embonpoint c

  1. embonpoint

Declension

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Declension of embonpoint 
Uncountable
Indefinite Definite
Nominative embonpoint embonpointen — —
Genitive embonpoints embonpointens — —

References

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