Soft, loose, and drooping, lacking firmness or muscle tone.
From Middle English flabi, possibly related to flap or flag (things that wave loosely). The word entered English in the 1600s describing both physical tissue and metaphorically weak character.
Interestingly, 'flabby' is a younger word than 'flab' isn't—'flab' only appears in English around the 1800s, making this a case where we created the adjective after the noun, backwards from how language usually works.
Applied overwhelmingly to women's bodies as insult; male bodies rarely critiqued via this word. Embedded in beauty standards that police women's appearance and age.
Avoid for people. Use for neutral texture descriptions (flabby dough, flabby prose) only.
["soft","loose-textured","weak","poorly-written"]
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