zaftig, adj.

zaftig
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zaftig_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2019

# zaftigadjective

## Earlier version

- zaftig, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zaftig mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zaftig. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is used in North American English.

### How common is the adjective zaftig?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0012
1950 | 0.0023
1960 | 0.004
1970 | 0.0064
1980 | 0.0086
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.012
2010 | 0.014

### How is the adjective zaftig pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzaftɪɡ/
ZAFF-tig
/ˈzɑːftɪɡ/
ZAHFF-tig

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɑftɪɡ/
ZAHFF-tig
/ˈzɔftɪɡ/
ZAWFF-tig

### Where does the adjective zaftig come from?

Earliest known use

1920s

The earliest known use of the adjective zaftig is in the 1920s.

OED's earliest evidence for zaftig is from 1921, in Broadway Brevities.

zaftig is a borrowing from Yiddish.

Etymons: Yiddish zaftik.

### Nearby entries

1. zabernism, n. 1916–21
2. zabernize, v. 1914
3. zabra, n. 1523–
4. zabuton, n. 1879–
5. zac, n. 1898–
6. 'zackly | 'zactly, adv. 1886–
7. zad, n. 1669–
8. Zadokite, n. & adj. 1910–
9. zadruga, n. 1887–
10. zaffre | zaffer, n. 1662–
11. zaftig, adj.1921–
12. zafu, n. 1965–
13. zag, n., adv., & v. 1793–
14. zagaie | zagaye, n. 1590–1698
15. Zaghlulist, n. & adj. 1921–
16. zaguan, n. 1851–
17. Zahal, n. 1959–
18. zaibatsu, n. 1937–
19. Zaidi, n. 1709–
20. zaikai, n. 1968–
21. zaim, n. 1807–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Yiddish.
Etymon: Yiddish zaftik.
< Yiddish zaftik, literally ‘juicy’ < German saftig juicy (already in Middle High German as saffec, saffic) < Saft juice (see sap n.1) + ‑ig ‑y suffix1.

## Meaning & use

North American colloquial.

1. 1921–
   Of a woman: having a full, rounded figure; plump.
   1. 1921

      > Isn't Diana Allen getting very zoftig?

      Broadway Brevities December 20
   2. 1967

      > ‘And see how zoftik she is.’ Mrs. Green felt pleased she had spotted someone over-weight.

      P. Welles, Babyhip (1969) xxiv. 139
   3. 1981

      > Zaftig Dolly Parton..once described herself as looking like a ‘hooker with a heart of gold’.

      Gossip (Holiday Special) 11/2
   4. 2009

      > The waitress, a zaftig girl with a funny combination of bangs and retro cat–woman glasses topping her sweet bored expression, scurried right over.

      J. Lethem, Chronic City x. 175
   North American English colloquial and slang
   1. wally?a1513–
      Used as an indefinite term of admiration: handsome, fine, excellent. Also (a) (of people and animals): bonny, plump; thriving; (b) (of things)…
   2. buxom 1589–
      Full of health, vigour, and good temper; well-favoured, plump and comely, ‘jolly’, comfortable-looking (in person). (Chiefly of women.)
   3. sonsy 1720–
      Of a person: attractive, pleasant, or cheerful in appearance; healthy-looking, hearty; spec. (of a woman) comely, attractive; buxom, plump. Also…
   4. buxom-looking 1840–
   5. tisty-tosty 1888–
      attributive or adj. Round like a cowslip-ball; plump and comely.
   6. zaftig 1921–
      Of a woman: having a full, rounded figure; plump.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. buxom 1589–
      Full of health, vigour, and good temper; well-favoured, plump and comely, ‘jolly’, comfortable-looking (in person). (Chiefly of women.)
   2. matronly a1660–
      Resembling a matron, esp. (in later use) in being rather staid or stout.
   3. buxom-looking 1840–
   4. zaftig 1921–
      Of a woman: having a full, rounded figure; plump.
   5. curvaceous 1933–
      Of a woman or a woman's figure, physique, etc.: having an attractively curved shape. Later also occasionally applied to men.
   6. curvesome 1933–
      Full of curves, curvy; spec. (of a woman or a woman's figure) having an attractively curved shape; = curvaceous, adj. 1.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzaftɪɡ/
ZAFF-tig
/ˈzɑːftɪɡ/
ZAHFF-tig

### U.S. English

/ˈzɑftɪɡ/
ZAHFF-tig
/ˈzɔftɪɡ/
ZAWFF-tig
/ˈzæftɪɡ/
ZAFF-tig

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1900s–
   zaftic, zaftick, zaftig, zaftik, zoftick, zoftig, zoftik

## Frequency

zaftig typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zaftig is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zaftig, adj., 1920–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0007
1940 | 0.0012
1950 | 0.0023
1960 | 0.004
1970 | 0.0064
1980 | 0.0086
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.012
2010 | 0.014

zaftig, adj. was revised in December 2019.

zaftig, adj. was last modified in July 2023.