callipygian

From Ancient Greek καλλίπυγος (kallípugos) + -ian, from κάλλος (kállos, “beauty”) + πυγή (pugḗ, “buttocks”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkæ.ləˈpɪ.d͡ʒi.ən/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌkælɪˈpɪdʒi.ən/, /ˌkæliˈpɪdʒjən/, /ˌkæləˈpɪdʒi.ən/, /ˌkæləˈpɪdʒjən/

callipygian (comparative more callipygian, superlative most callipygian)

1. Having beautifully shaped buttocks.
   • 1873, anonymous author, The Romance of Lust‎, volume 1:

     […] we soon once more were in a state to renew our delicious combat; and a second course was run in the delightful callipygian recesses of Venus’s second temple of lubricity.

   • 1918, Frances Douglas, transl., Sónnica, Duffield & Company, translation of original by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, page 131:

     Suddenly the music grew fainter, as if drawing away, and the dancers, their feet together and limbs half opened, descended in a slow spiral, with gentle undulations, until they touched the floor; the instant their callipygian charms grazed the mosaic, they recoiled like suddenly awakened serpents, […]

   • 2006, Geoffrey Brock, transl., The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, translation of original by Umberto Eco, →ISBN, page 246:

     Her gown (perhaps as a result of the scorching winds coming off the ambas) clung damply to her body, clearly revealing her callipygian curves and the entire shapely length of her legs.

   • 2007, Ryan North, Dinosaur Comics, from the comic strip on May 22:

     [T-Rex:] My lovely visage, callipygian frame, startlingly awesome calves and charming smile will yet go down in history!

   • 2008 January 12, Conrad Black, “A nation seeking a hero”, in National Post, Canada:

     With trepidation, but not embarrassment, I offer the thought that Mrs. Obama, a formerly disadvantaged alumna of Princeton and Harvard, to judge from her well-strategized appearances on national television in exiguous dresses and trousers, is as callipygian as Jennifer Lopez.

2. Specifically, describing a statue (often of a goddess such as Aphrodite) in a pose that shows off the figure's shapely buttocks.

• (having beautiful buttocks): bootylicious, bumtastic, callipygous, rumpalicious

• steatopygia
• steatopygous

• natiform