What does buxom mean?
Buxom describes a woman who is pleasingly plump and full-bosomed, with generous curves — a body type celebrated in art and literature from Rubens to Victorian fiction. The word is almost always applied to women, typically in an informal, affectionate, or slightly comic register: think of the buxom barmaid or the buxom heroine of a period romance. Its connotations are warm rather than crude, though modern sensibilities can find it objectifying since it reduces a woman to her figure. Surprisingly, 'buxom' began life meaning something entirely different: in Old English it meant obedient or pliant, derived from a verb meaning 'to bend', and it later passed through a sense of 'lively and cheerful' before settling on its modern physical meaning by the seventeenth century. That dramatic shift makes it a favourite example among etymologists of how thoroughly a word's meaning can migrate over time.
adjective(Of a woman) plump and full-bosomed, with full curves; attractively voluptuous.
- Of a woman: having a full, curvaceous figure, especially a large bosom.
- (Archaic) Lively, gay, jocund.
- (Obsolete) Pliant, yielding, obedient.
"The portrait shows a buxom barmaid laughing behind the tavern counter."
"The novel's heroine was described as a buxom young widow with a ready laugh."
"The old ballad tells of a buxom lass who outwitted two suitors."
In Old English, 'buxom' had nothing to do with bodies at all — it meant 'obedient' or 'pliant', from a word meaning 'to bow'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of buxom
Buxom derives from Old English 'gebugan'-related vocabulary built on the Germanic root *beug-, meaning 'to bend' or 'to bow'. Originally it denoted someone pliant, tractable, or obedient — literally one who could be 'bent' to another's will. In Middle and early Modern English the sense broadened through 'compliant and good-humoured' into 'lively, merry, jocund'. By roughly the seventeenth century it had acquired its modern meaning of a woman full-bosomed and ample in figure, possibly because liveliness and health were associated with a well-fed appearance. The same ancient root also produced 'bow', 'bough', and 'elbow'.
Word family
Usage notes
'Buxom' is informal and somewhat dated, with a playful or affectionate tone rather than a clinical one. Because it focuses attention on a woman's body, it can be perceived as objectifying in modern usage, so it appears more often in historical fiction, comedy, and period writing than in contemporary neutral description.