BUXOM
What does "BUXOM" mean?
Of a woman, attractively plump and full-figured, especially full-bosomed.
Meanings
- Full-figured and shapely, typically of a woman. The portrait showed a buxom innkeeper laughing behind the bar.
- Obedient, compliant, or pliant (the original sense). A buxom and dutiful subject of the crown. archaic
Did you know?
- 'Buxom' once meant 'obedient' - it comes from the Old English verb 'bugan', to bow or bend, and only after centuries of drift through 'cheerful' and 'lively' did it arrive at its modern body-related sense.
Word origin
From Middle English 'buhsum' (obedient, pliant), from Old English 'bugan' (to bow or bend) plus '-some'; its meaning drifted from 'compliant' through 'cheerful' and 'lively' to its modern sense of full-figured.
Remember it
BUXOM hides an 'X' marking the spot - and its meaning bent (from 'bugan', to bow) all the way across the centuries.
A little poem
A word that once meant 'she will obey',
bent like its root, and now means something else today.
couplet
What it teaches
Words drift like rivers - the meaning you inherit may have started a continent away from where it ends.
Quick facts
What does BUXOM mean?
Of a woman, attractively plump and full-figured, especially full-bosomed.
Is BUXOM a valid word?
Yes — BUXOM is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is BUXOM?
BUXOM has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does BUXOM come from?
From Middle English 'buhsum' (obedient, pliant), from Old English 'bugan' (to bow or bend) plus '-some'; its meaning drifted from 'compliant' through 'cheerful' and 'lively' to its modern sense of full-figured.
What can BUXOM teach us?
Words drift like rivers - the meaning you inherit may have started a continent away from where it ends.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.