Chubby

How to spell chubby

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce chubby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does chubby mean?

1. adjectivePlump and rounded in a soft, often endearing way.

Chubby in a sentence

• The baby had chubby cheeks that everyone wanted to pinch.

• He grew a little chubby over the long winter holidays.

Where does chubby come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the name of the chub, a plump, thick-bodied freshwater fish recorded in English from the 1400s. By the early 1600s, English speakers began using 'chubby' to describe a person or face shaped like that rotund fish, that is, round and full in a healthy, well-fed way. The fish name itself is of uncertain origin, possibly linked to a dialect sense of something short and thick, which is why etymologists treat the exact root with caution. Over time the word lost any clear association with fishing and settled into everyday use as a gentle, affectionate description of plumpness. The doubled b in the spelling follows the regular English pattern of doubling the final consonant after a short stressed vowel before adding -y.

How the word is built

• chub (a thick-bodied fish)
• -by (adjective suffix indicating resemblance)