corpulent
→ adjective
(of a person) fat: a short, somewhat corpulent man.
– DERIVATIVES corpulence noun corpulency noun .
– ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin corpulentus, from corpus ‘body’.
“This Adonis in loveliness was a corpulent man of fifty.” – Leigh Hunt
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
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I am not sure why but I’ve taken a strong liking to this word this week. It implies something worse than fat, or even obesity. Corpulent conjures up a largeness and girth so profound as to be just one moment away from heart failure. I just described a funeral director this way in my new story “The Perfect Solution.”
I have never heard that word before, but I really like it!! Hmmm how will I be able to add that in to my everyday discourse…
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