Zaftig

Zaftig (pronounced zahf-tig, zahf-tik, zawf-tig or zawf-tik)

(1) Of a woman, having a particular and pleasingly curvaceous figure.

(2) By extension, of wine, certain machines, architecture etc, full-bodied; well-proportioned.

1926: From the Yiddish זאַפֿטיק‎ (zaftik) (literally, “juicy, succulent”) from zaft (juice) and cognate with the Middle High German saftec, a derivative of saf & saft, the Old High German saf and the German Saft (juice, sap) & saftig (juicy).  The alternative spellings are zoftig & zaftige, both known in Yiddish texts but in English slang it’s appeared also as zoftik, zoftick, zaftige, zofttig & softic, the variations presumably because the written form came directly from the oral but the latter may have been under the influence of German.  Zaftig is an adjective but in slang has been used as a (non-standard) noun (a zaftig) and zaftigish & zaftigesque are both (non-standard) adjectives; the (non-standard) noun plural is zaftigs.

Rubenesque: The Three Graces (circa 1632) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Museo del Prado, Madrid.

According to Jewish linguistic anthropology, zaftig entered Yiddish in the mid-nineteenth century and was picked up in English sometimes early in the next, the first recorded instance of use in 1927 where it became a US colloquialism which referred to a woman whose figure was plump yet sexually attractive.  It implied someone voluptuous and well-proportioned even if large, conveying something like the word Rubenesque which had long been a “polite” way of putting it, the construct being Rubens +‎ -esque, an allusion to many of the women depicted in the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens.  Rubenesque was understood usually to be a compliment because it was thought a reference to sensuousness rather than mere size and in this, like zaftig, it differed from more brutish descriptors such as chunky, flabby, plump, portly, pudgy, stout, rounded, shapely, beefy, corpulent or meaty which tend to the negative, even if modified with a helpful adverb like “pleasingly” or “alluringly”.

Zaftigesque: The Three Charlottes; Charlotte McKinney (b 1993), Encore Player’s Club grand opening, Las Vegas, 2016.  This little black dress (LBD) is optimized for Ms McKinney’s specific instance of selective zaftigism.

Zaftig remains useful because of its comparative rarity, the obscurity of the word meaning if can still often be used to objectify women (if that’s one’s thing) whereas the use of other, more familiar adjectives would see one condemned as sexist, misogynistic or worse.  For students of nuance, the comparative is more zaftig, the superlative most zaftig.