Plump
/plʌmp/noun
Having a full, rounded, and pleasantly heavy shape; also, to become fuller or more swollen.
Did you know?The word’s earliest English sense was not “round and chubby” at all, but a thudding impact or heavy fall, which is why it still feels so physically weighty today.
Etymological Timeline
Early 17th Century
English
plump
“A sudden heavy fall, thud, or impact; to fall or drop heavily.”
17th Century
English
plump
“To make or become fuller, rounder, or more swollen.”
17th Century
Dutch
plomp
“Heavy, blunt, or clumsy; a thud or plunge.”
Middle Dutch
Dutch
plompen
“To plunge or drop heavily.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*pleu-
“To flow, float, or move; the broader ancestral source behind several words of movement and falling.”