buttock
English
Human buttocks.
Etymology
From Middle English buttok, probably from Old English buttuc (“end; end piece”; also, “short piece of land”). Attested with its current anatomical meaning since 1300. A diminutive form of what is presumably the Old English precursor of butt + -ock (diminutive suffix).
Noun
buttock (plural buttocks)
- (usually in the plural) Each of the two large fleshy halves of the posterior part of the body between the base of the back, the perineum and the top of the legs.
- The convexity of a ship behind, under the stern.
- 1925, Adventure, Volume 54
- There came a blast of freezing wind that made Skell shrug himself against the oaken post on which the ship's buttock rested.
- 1925, Adventure, Volume 54
Usage notes
The plural form is usually used in the singular sense for a single person's posterior, often called butt. It is rarer to refer to only a single buttock, which is then usually specified as left or right.
Synonyms
- asscheek (crude)
- butt-cheek
- arsecheek (crude)
- bum-cheek
- cheek
- ham
- mound
- hurdies (plural only)
- See also Thesaurus:buttocks
Derived terms
Translations
each of the two large fleshy halves of the posterior part of the body
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See also
References
- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
- “buttock” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
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