Word Of The Day (filed under things I don’t get)

Portly

What do you think of when you see that word?   I think of fat men. I’m just being honest here.  I don’t think of fat women.  Fat men get to be described as portly.  Fat women get to be described as fat women.  What’s up with that?

“Fat bastards” help other portly men lose weight

I saw the above article about portly men and it got me thinking about the word.  The following is a definition of the portly:

  1. Comfortably stout; corpulent.
  2. Archaic. Stately; majestic; imposing.

Give me a freakin’ break.  Not only are fat men portly they are comfortably stout and they are usually considered gentlemen and now they are stately?   Yes, you’re damn right that’s archaic.

portly

synonyms for FAT: fat, obese, corpulent, fleshy, portly, stout, pudgy, rotund, plump, chubby. These adjectives mean having an abundance and often an excess of flesh. Fat implies excessive weight and generally has negative connotations: was getting fat and decided to exercise. Obese and corpulent imply gross overweight: “a woman of robust frame . . . though stout, not obese” (Charlotte Brontë). The dancer was corpulent but surprisingly graceful. Fleshy implies a not necessarily excessive abundance of flesh: firm, fleshy arms. Portly refers to bulk combined with a stately or imposing bearing: “a portly, rubicund man of middle age” (Winston Churchill). Stout denotes a thickset, bulky figure: a painting of stout peasants. Pudgy means short and fat: pudgy fingers. Rotund suggests roundness of figure, often in a squat person: “this pink-faced rotund specimen of prosperity” (George Eliot). Plump and chubby apply to a pleasing fullness of figure: a plump little toddler; chubby cheeks.

Who would have thought there were so many words for fat.

So from now on I’m not going to consider myself fat.  I am woman!! I am Fleshy!  I don’t know if fleshy is any better but it sounds a little more sexy than fat.



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