arnie posted in another thread about a tabloid that featured, among other thing, "tits." Having thought of "tits" as being nipples only, (Webster's online's first definition is "teat") or the breasts of youthfully developed females, it occurred to me that such a definition is far from universal. I find it hard to picture Playboy centerfolds as having tits when they're grossly mismatched to their bodies.

The French have the word, bloblos to describe big, fat mammary gland holders, and we have 'boobs," and dozens of other terms for fat or large breasts. Do the rest of you see any distinction?

Interesting question, Geoff. Perhaps men think differently, but to me "tits" and "boobs" are synonyms for women's breasts. (Is that apostrophe right? Should it be womens'?)

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to me "tits" and "boobs" are synonyms for women's breasts. (Is that apostrophe right? Should it be womens'?)

And to me; although I agree that tits can refer only to the teats, in most cases I would say that the user of the word means the breasts.

By the way, you were right the first time: women's. It's the breasts of women, not the breasts of *womens.

I sadly recall the woman swimmer who was caught in an undertow and lifeguards had to rescue her two abreast.

I looked up (in a real dictionary and not a slang one) the synonyms for "breast" to see if I'd forgotten anything. One was "bosom," but I think of bosom as being a woman's chest, and not just her breasts, don't you? The funniest was "udder," though.

"Bosom" was in vogue when I was very young, but I've not heard it in everyday speech for fifty years or so. As for "udder," I suppose if you're atavistic, and have four breasts...

Back when gasoline (petrol) engines had ignition breaker points, the metal transfered from one point to the other was frequently called a tit. Perhaps it's from that that I formed the notion that "tit" was a small, pointy breast. Then there are bitds such as the tufted titmouse which has a little, pointed crest. Then there's the great tit (I'm not making this up) whose taxonomical name is parus major. Parus means, "Bear, or bring forth," but, it seems, also "tit." So how to explain the much larger bird, the booby?

Then there's the Teton Range in the Rocky Mountains. Three of them - that's being greedy.

True, but also called the Grand Tetons, so there we go with bit tits/little tits again. Note that the mountains are quite pointy, giving support to my notion that tits are pointy, whereas boobs are more globular.

And of course there's always "tit for tat." Remember that "Friends?"