"Uniboob"

[M. Lynne Murphy]

>    Nike has had members of the U. S. women's soccer team promote the
>company's sports bras, which supposedly avoid "uniboob."
>    The Nike site is at www.nike.com.  (There is an entry for "the F-Word,"
>but it means "Footwear.")
>    "Uniboob" goes back to at least 1996 on a deja.com search.  My guess is
>that the term was probably started by a women's magazine--Nexis will probably
>come close, but not give us the direct hit.

I doubt very much that it was started by a magazine--it more likely came out
of casual conversation.  It's probably one of those words that gets
re-coined repeatedly (and everyone thinks they're the first one to do
it--monosexual is like that too).  I bought a dress in 1991 that gave me
uniboob--I can't remember whether my pals and I called it uniboob--i think
we called it "monobreast".

Lynne Murphy
Dept of English
Baylor U
Waco, TX 76798