Zaftig is the Word of the Day

by Chris Abraham on 10/05/2006 ·

zaftig (Yiddish) Plump and juicy, from German “saftig” meaning “juicy”. “Full and shapely, as if this is a woman with some heft, but in a beautiful sense.”


“As a young child I remember hearing a family friend use this word in a conversation with my mother. I asked what it meant and they sent me to the dictionary to look it up. I have loved it ever since. I love both the way it feels in my mouth, and I love the implications of the meaning. It means full and shapely, as if this is a woman with some heft, but in a beautiful sense (and not in a back-handed sort of way as “Rubenesque??? seems to be these days). The origin meant juicy, which I find just delicious!” By Holly Riester

Share on Tumblr

Facebook comments:

Leave a Comment

You can use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

By submitting a comment here you grant this site a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution.

Previous post:

Next post: