well-endowed

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:26 AM -0400 5/26/05, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>A student asked me the other day when the phrase "well-endowed" took
>on its current anatomical meaning and began referring only
>occasionally to gifts providing abundant financial resources. Of
>course, I did not know.
>One on-line dictionary shows the financial sense has indeed slipped
>to third place (below, and this is also the line-up in the AHD).
>Another had only the reference to female anatomy and no mention of
>males or money.
>
>well-en·dowed (wln-doud)
>adj.
>1.  Having large breasts.
>2.  Having large genitals. Used of a male.
>3.  Having a large endowment or amount of money.
>
And by now when it's used in sense (3) there's either a snicker, or a
pun involved, diagnostics for cases of taboo avoidance.  I don't
think this necessarily trickles down to "endowed" tout court, as in
an endowed chair (although snickers may arise even then depending on
the context), but "well-endowed" definitely has to be handled with
care.

Larry