Editorial note — Chapter IX · WEIGHT AND GOOD FEELING

[Footnote 27: Those who are interested in fossil words will find many curious confirmations of the connection between weight and good health and good humor. A typical illustration is the word buxom, derived from the German biegsam, which means "ready to obey," from the original significance of being ready to bend, that is bendsome. In our day it has come to have quite a material rather than an ethical significance. A buxom woman is one who is round and full of form and while she usually also is cheerful and tractable, the two ideas are not necessarily connected. It is curious that what was originally the obedient wife should now have become the stout and healthy wife, as if stoutness and healthiness were somehow inseparably connected with the preceding idea so that gradually one portion of the meaning was lost sight of and now only the physical significance remains.]