BBW

English

Etymology

Abbreviation.

• (big beautiful woman): Coined by Carole Shaw in 1979 in the first sense with the launch of BBW Magazine, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for plus-size women.

Noun

BBW (countable and uncountable, plural BBWs)

1. (sexuality) Initialism of big beautiful woman: used as a positive description for women who are (sometimes slightly) overweight and physically attractive.
   • 2025 February 11, Patrick Reilly, “500-pound rapper suing Lyft over ride denial asks for couch over chair at ‘Breakfast Club’ interview: ‘This is accommodation’”, in New York Post‎^[1]:

     Dank Demoss, who’s described herself as “obese” and a BBW — “big beautiful woman” — walked into the New York City studio and sat down in a wheeled office chair before the interview started and she immediately looked uncomfortable and let the crew know it.

   1. (body morphology) Initialism of big-boned woman: recoinage of the acronym, making fun of the typical term for overweight women.
2. Initialism of Big Bad Wolf.
3. (automotive) Initialism of brake-by-wire.

Derived terms

• (big beautiful/boned women): SSBBW

Further reading

• Big Beautiful Woman on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• brake-by-wire on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BWB