bust

Ever wondered how you could get from “burning” to “breasts” in a few easy steps? Just read on. The original Latin word was ambustus, literally “burned around”, referring to a funeral pyre and related to the modern combustion. In ancient times, the Etruscans, neighbours of the early Romans, had the practice of placing a person’s ashes in an urn shaped like their upper body, hence a bust. The Romans copied this and the Italians continued the practice of placing a figurine of the departed on the grave. Eventually, the link with the departed was lost and it simply referred to a statue of the upper body. In English it went further in also referring solely to the most prominent part of a woman’s anatomy. It would help to explain why a busty woman can inflame men's passions before reducing them to ashes.