callipygous

English

WOTD – 14 February 2009

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κάλλος (kállos, “beauty”) + πυγή (pugḗ, “buttocks”) + -ous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kalɪˈpɪdʒəs/, /kalɪˈpʌɪɡəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkæl.ɪˈpɪ.d͡ʒəs/, /kæləˈpaɪɡəs/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

callipygous (comparative more callipygous, superlative most callipygous)

1. Synonym of callipygian
   • 1928, Aldous Huxley, chapter VII, in Point Counter Point‎^[1], London: Chatto & Windus, page 122:

     One does not fall very desperately in love with a loud speaker, however pretty, however firmly plump (for Philip's tastes were rather old-fashioned), however attractively callipygous.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC:

     He enjoyed Nurse Sue Ann Duckett’s long white legs and supple, callipygous ass; he often neglected to remember that she was quite slim and fragile from the waist up and hurt her unintentionally in moments of passion when he hugged her too roughly.

   • 1976, Samuel R. Delany, Triton, Bantam Books,, →ISBN, page 105:

     The other hand came up and together they described a near callipygous shape.

Translations

callipygian — see callipygian