Butter-Bag(s)

[gilly at netcomuk.co.uk]

ckaratnytsky at nypl.org wrote:
>
>"Butter-bags" is slang for breasts.
> 
>      Not in Brooklyn it isn't.  May I ask the origin of the term?  Ain't in
>      the shorter OED I have handy.

In the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang (ed. Eric Partridge, 
1973) a *butter-bag* is a *Dutchman* (Dutch = great eaters/producers of 
butter?).

However, according to Diedrich Knickerbocker in the History of New York 
(1809), *butter-bags* refers to men who jog around in shorts that are 
much too big for them (p.538).

I prefer Eric Partridge's explanation, though.

David Gilligan