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KyleGoetz (Offline)
Attorney at Flaw
 
Posts: 2,965
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Texas
08-12-2010, 05:51 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sashimister View Post
KyleGoetz brought up バックシャーン. (In recent years, it's more often written and read バックシャン.)

This is an unusual word in that it's a mixture of English ("back") and German ("schon") yet it's probably used only in Japanese. It means a person (esp. a woman) who looks much better from the back than the front.
The best equivalent we have in English is "butterface." It's slightly different, but the joke is that everything looks good "butter face" (but her face).

Obviously a sexist neologism if I ever heard one, but languages studies dictate openness about potentially offensive terms. In the US, men freely use the term around each other, but it's not something to be said in polite company.
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