Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is
Word
Origins 159. The word origin today is
cleavage.
Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. 
If a person
says the word cleavage,  it mostly refers
to the space between a woman's breast.
Okay. Let's continue. The origin of the
word
cleavage derives from "cleave" meaning
split and was previously "cliofan"
or "cleofan" two different spellings,  in
old English.
Okay. Let's continue The word cleavage in
English did not
originally refer to women's breasts. 
It was originally a technical term
in geology relating to the tendency
of rocks
to break cleanly along fissures. Fissures
are like cracks
and they could break and split along
that. So it actually had a kind of a very
serious meaning. You know, 
you know in geology. You know which is
well and some people are really into it
but other people don't think it's the
most
interesting subject. All right. Let's
continue. 
The word did not refer to women's
breasts until
1946. It originally came from a Time
magazine article for the Johnston
Office Trade organization. The term
referred to the space between
an actress's bosom.  Bosom is another
more formal word for breasts. 
Bosom. Well actually bosom really just
refers to chest. 
So you can even you know, even a man has
a bosom. Basically. 
And remember I think a long time ago
I did the
noun phrase of bosom buddy. We sometimes
say somebody's  bosom buddy. Meaning a
very close friend too.
When wearing low-cut clothing. 
So that's where it really came from. So it
originally came from a Time magazine
article. It
was the first one to use it in reference
to,  to women's breasts.
Anyway,  and let's just look at several
examples of how we hear
this used. All right. Here's the first one. 
She likes to wear
a lot of low-cut tops to show off her
cleavage.
Sometimes they do. Some women maybe if
they think you know this is an
attractive quality they have. They may do
that.
All right.  Number two. When low-rise jeans
were in fashion. Yeah. They're kind of out
now but there was about four or five
years there were
low-rise jeans were in fashion. Some
women used to show
off their butt cleavage. Yeah. I thought
that was interesting that
that's how they used to refer to it. You
know,  the the top of the crack of your
butt. You know,  because if you wore
low-rise jeans that was the idea to
actually show off a little bit of the
top of the crack
of your butt. And you know in fashion
magazines and stuff they would actually
call it butt cleavage. So again we're not
hearing about it as much because it's
not
i think it's kind of gone out of fashion
at this point. But there was about four
or five years there where
it was very much in fashion. All right. 
And number three here.
She is very modest she would never wear
any tops
that would expose her cleavage. So we say
expose or show off
your cleavage. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got
it. I hope you found it interesting.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
