[Ads-l] bigorexia

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Long-time ADS-list member Ronald Butters co-authored a piece in
American Speech which mentioned "bigorexia" and pointed to an August
12, 1985 citation in "People" magazine. The OED lists the same
citation. (Jesse mentioned the 1985 OED citation.)

Date: Summer 1987
Journal: American Speech
Volume 62, Number 2,
Article: For the Nonce
Authors: Cynthia Y. Krueger, Ronald R. Butters (Duke University)
Quote Page 176
https://www.jstor.org/stable/455283

[Begin excerpt]
We don't merely get nervous, we get the megajitters 'overabundance of
anxiety' (Newsweek, 15 Oct. 1984, 118), perhaps caused by an attack of
bigorexia 'obsessive desire to be physically large' (People, 12 Aug.
1985, 87) ...
[End excerpt]

Word Spy has an entry for "bigorexia" which lists the same "People"
magazine article as the earliest citation.
https://wordspy.com/words/bigorexia/

Garson

On Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 3:54 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> This is actually pretty well established. OED has it to 1985, and it's in Merriam-Webster as well.
>
> On Sat, Feb 07, 2026 at 11:31:56AM -0500, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > https://www.yahoo.com/health/conditions/eating-disorders/articles/bigorexia-rise-heres-parents-know-120022635.html
> >
> > “Bigorexia is a psychological condition and type of body dysmorphic
> > disorder which involves a distorted self-image that focuses specifically on
> > muscle size and physical appearance,” Kara Becker,a certified eating
> > disorder therapist and national director of eating disorder programs at
> > Newport Healthcare, told HuffPost.
> >
> > J
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org