curvy

Etymology

It is formed from English curve + -y, from the noun curve and the adjective suffix.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the earlier adjectives curved and curving.^[2] The OED records the noun from 1596 and Etymonline from the 1690s, deriving it from the verb;^[2][3] the adjective and the verb come from Latin curvus (“bent, curved, crooked”) and curvō (“to bend”).^[2][3] The OED calls the origin of the Latin adjective uncertain, perhaps the same Indo-European base as Ancient Greek κυρτός (kurtós, “curved”),^[2] while Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having a curve or curves; full of curves: 1623, in Gerard de Malynes's Center of the Circle of Commerce.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1845,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com to the early 20th century.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The plural curves was used of the outlines of a woman's figure from 1849, in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley,^[2] or 1862 in Etymonline's dating.^[3] The adjective followed in 1904, in the New York magazine Puck: of a woman's figure, shapely, with a rounded bust and hips, at first an American colloquialism.^[2] Merriam-Webster now gives this as the main special sense, as a synonym of curvaceous.^[6] The noun curviness is recorded from the late 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1623 – having curves, full of curves.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1845.^[3]
• 1904 – of a woman's figure, shapely, curvaceous (originally American).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having many curves; winding or bent: a curvy mountain road.^[2][6][4]
2. Of a woman's figure: having a rounded bust and hips; shapely or curvaceous.^[2][6]

Related words

• curve
• curvature
• curvaceous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster