--- title: Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Talking about someone's weight can hurt, so people reach for softer words than "fat". --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: weight and… # Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth Lesson 10 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 24 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/0/) — Talking about someone's weight can hurt, so people reach for softer words than "fat". - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/1/) — Some are kind ("curvy", "cuddly"), some are old-fashioned ("portly", "stout"), some are jokes ("love handles", "dad bod"), and shops use labels like "husky" for boys' sizes. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/2/) — Old soft words for having a baby stay too: "with child" means pregnant, and "a happy event" is a birth. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/3/) — Vivid example: a granny says "Your uncle's a bit well-upholstered these days" — he is not a sofa; she means he has got fat. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/4/) — Remember that even soft words about weight can still hurt, so it is kinder not to comment on people's bodies at all. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/5/) — "Big-boned" is an everyday soft way to say fat; bones are rarely the real reason. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/6/) — "Curvy" usually means a woman is plump, with a rounded shape. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/7/) — "Cuddly" said of a person often means fat, in a warm way. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/8/) — "Love handles" is a joking name for fat around the waist. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/9/) — "Well-padded" is a joking way to say fat. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/10/) — "Portly" is an old-fashioned word for a fat man. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/11/) — "Stout" is an old-fashioned word for fat. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/13/) — "Heavyset" is an American way to say fat or heavily built. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/14/) — "Rubenesque" means plump and attractive, after the painter Rubens, who painted round women. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/15/) — "Dad bod" is slang for a soft, out-of-shape male body. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/16/) — "On the heavy side" is a polite way to say fat. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/17/) — "Well-upholstered" is a joking British way to say fat, as if the person were a padded sofa. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/18/) — "Pleasingly plump" is an old-fashioned way to say fat in a nice-looking way. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/19/) — "A weight problem" usually means obesity, being very overweight. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/20/) — "Chunky" often means fat, especially of a child. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/21/) — "Husky" is an American clothing size for large or fat boys. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/22/) — "With child" is an old-fashioned way to say pregnant. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/23/) — "A visit from the stork" is a joking way to say a baby is born; children were told storks bring babies. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/24/) — "A happy event" is a polite British way to talk about the birth of a baby. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: age and looks and weight](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/9-age-looks-and-size/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/11-pregnancy-and-birth/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)