buxom: [12] Originally, buxom meant ‘obedient’. It goes back to an unrecorded *būhsum, which meant literally ‘capable of being bent’, and was formed from the verb būgan ‘bend’, from which modern English gets bow. The sequence by which the word’s present-day sense developed seems to have been ‘compliant, obliging’, ‘lively, jolly’, ‘healthily plump and vigorous’, and finally (of a woman) ‘large-breasted’. => bow
buxom (adj.)
late 12c., buhsum "humble, obedient," from Proto-Germanic *buh- stem of Old English bugen "to bow" (see bow (v.)) + -som, for a total meaning "capable of being bent." Meaning progressed from "compliant, obliging," through "lively, jolly," "healthily plump, vigorous," to (in women, and perhaps influenced by lusty) "plump, comely" (1580s). In Johnson [1755] the primary meaning still is "obedient, obsequious."
Used often of breasts, and by 1950s it had begun to be used more narrowly for "bosomy" and could be paired with slim (adj.). Dutch buigzaam, German biegsam "flexible, pliable" hew closer to the original sense of the English cognate.
双语例句
1. Melissa was a tall, buxom blonde.
梅利莎是个丰满的高个子金发美女。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Jane is a buxom blond.
简是一个性感的金发女郎.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. A buxom widow must be either married , buried or shut up in a convent.
寡妇门前是非多.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. He still pictured her as buxom, high - colored, lively and a little blowsy.
他心中仍旧认为她身材丰满 、 面色红润 、 生气勃勃、还有点邋遢.
来自辞典例句
5. Miss Sophy was a fresh, good - humoured , buxom girl of twenty.