fat

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fæt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fat, fatt,^[2][3] inherited from Old English fǣtt (“fat, fatted, plump”),^[4][2] originally the contracted past participle of fǣtan (“to cram, stuff”), fǣttian,^[2][4][3] from Proto-Germanic *faitida (“fatted”), from the verb *faitjan “to fatten”, from *faitaz (“plump, fat”).^[4][5] It is cognate with Old Frisian fatt, Dutch vet, German fett and feist, and Old Norse feitr.^[4][2] Watkins reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *poid- (“to abound in water, milk, fat”),^[4] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Latin opīmus “fat, fertile”, Greek pīmelḗ “fat” and Sanskrit pī́vas “fat”.^[2][3] The noun is from the adjective.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fatted, plump: before 900, in Alfred's translation of Orosius.^[2] People have been described as fat since Anglo-Saxon times.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The noun, the fat part of anything, is from the mid-14th century,^[4][2] the richest or choicest part from late Middle English, surviving in the fat of the land, from Pharaoh's promise to Joseph in Genesis,^[7][6] and fat as a component of animal bodies from the 1530s.^[4] The adjective's sense “prosperous, abounding in comforts” is from the late 14th century.^[4] The fat is in the fire first meant “the plan has failed” (1560s).^[4] The old verb survives only in the biblical fatted calf, replaced by fatten (1552).^[4][2] In slang, fat chance, “no chance at all”, is from 1905, perhaps ironic,^[4] fat cat, a rich and privileged person, from 1928,^[4] and fat for “attractive, up to date”, later spelled phat, from 1951.^[4] Fathead is from 1842 and fatso from 1943.^[4] Orwell (1939) and Cyril Connolly (1944) both wrote of the thin man inside every fat one.^[6] In chemistry, fat is any of the esters of glycerol and fatty acids.^[8]

Timeline

• before 900 – fatted, plump.^[2]
• mid-14th century – noun, the fat part.^[4]
• late 14th century – prosperous.^[4]
• 1530s – body fat.^[4]
• 1552 – fatten.^[2]
• 1560s – the fat is in the fire.^[4]
• 1905 – fat chance.^[4]
• 1928 – fat cat.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having much or too much flesh; plump or obese.
2. Containing much fat or grease.
3. Thick or large: a fat book.
4. Rich, fertile or profitable: a fat salary.
5. (informal) Very little: fat chance.

Noun

1. The soft, greasy tissue under the skin of animals and people.
2. Any of a group of oily substances, esters of glycerol and fatty acids, found in animals and plants; such a substance used in cooking.
3. The best or richest part: the fat of the land.
4. Excess or unnecessary material: trim the fat.

Word family

• fatly
• fatness
• fatless
• fatlike
• butterfat
• defat
• fatback
• fat-soluble

Related words

• fatten
• fatty
• fathead
• fatso
• fat cat
• phat

Usage notes

Two other words spelled fat are an archaic variant of vat, from Old English fæt,^[7][3] and a rare 19th-century noun for a conceited dandy, from French fat, from Latin fatuus “foolish”.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin