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zaftig: msg#00018

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: zaftig

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The Word of the Day for May 19 is:

zaftig \ZAHF-tig\ adjective
: having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump

Example sentence:
The Flemish painters were masters of the oil medium, rendering zaftig
beauties, robust burghers, hunting scenes, and allegorical subjects with subtle
interplays of light and color.

Did you know?
"Real women have curves," as a 2002 movie title proclaimed. They are
pleasingly plump, full-figured, shapely, womanly, curvy, curvaceous,
voluptuous, statuesque. They are, in a word, zaftig. "Zaftig" has been juicing
up our language since the 1930s (the same decade that gave us Yiddish-derived
"futz," "hoo-ha," "nosh," and "schmaltz," not to mention "lox"). It comes from
the Yiddish "zaftik," which means "juicy" or "succulent" and which in turn
derives from "zaft," meaning "juice" or "sap."






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