Based on my past language studies, I'll give this one a go:
Zaftig: Juicy, plump
Buxom: She of the full bosom
Nubile: Weddable; a beautiful girl
Now, the zaftig definition above is what I'm finding most people feel about the word, and that it doesn't imply a large, nice pair of breasts. I've never ascribed juicy and/or plump to zaftig, but that is what most people and the dictionary say.
Buxom, interestingly, does mean a full bosom, but it also means juicy and/or plump according to Webster's. Who knew?
Nubile - again, my definition would be a comely young lass ready to be randy. But, it does mean weddable, too, which I would never ascribe to that word.
The reason for all this is that there is a repeated line in my play - a beautiful, somewhat zaftig young woman - and the line describes the character Tammy Minoff is playing. No prob with the beautiful part - but the zaftig has become most controversial. I love the word, and I certainly know what I meant for it to mean - that the character has a nice full set of boobs, which Miss Minoff definitely has. But others are confounded by the use of the word, and they momentarily get taken out of the play because they're trying to figure out why someone would describe Tammy as juicy and/or plump. So, I thought about changing it to buxom, but I'm sorry, if buxom shares the same dictionary meaning, then why shouldn't I use zaftig if I'm going to use buxom. I also don't like the word nearly as well.
Today I came up with nubile, a word I also love and hadn't thought of before. When I hear that word, it instantly conjures up a young gal with a great figure. It would never occur to me that it also means "weddable" although even with that odd word tacked on to the meaning, it still kind of works for the play. What think all of you?
