Phys. [mod.L., f. Gr. στεατ-, στέαρ fat, tallow + πῡγή rump, buttocks.] A protuberance of the buttocks, due to an abnormal accumulation of fat in and behind the hips and thighs, found (more markedly in women than in men) as a racial characteristic of certain peoples, esp. the Hottentot Bushmen of South Africa.
1822. W. J. Burchell, Trav. S. Afr., I. xi. 216, note. It is not a fact, that the whole of the Hottentot race are thus formed; neither is there any particular tribe to which this strātopyga, as it may be called, is peculiar.
1873. Ellen E. Frewer. trans. Schweinfurth’s Heart of Africa, I. vii. 296. Shapes developed to this magnitude … I saw … among the Bongo, and they may well demand to be technically described as ‘Steatopyga.’
So ǁ Steatopygia, anglicized Steatopygy, the condition of having a steatopyga. Also Steatopygous a., pertaining to or characterized by a steatopyga. Steatopygic a. = prec.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xix. 345. With many Hottentot women the posterior part of the body projects in a wonderful manner; they are steatopygous.
1879. trans. De Quatrefages’ Hum. Species, 52. This steatopygia reappears however in certain tribes situated much further north than the Houzouana races.
1889. Athenæum, 13 April, 475/3. Dr. Topinard has been considering the probable cause of the steatopygy of Hottentot women.
1900. Deniker, Races of Man, ii. 94. Steatopygia is characteristic of the Bushman race.
1912. H. M. Wallis, in 19th Cent., Dec., 1219. Hideous autochthonoi of the Upper Nile, whose mis-shapen, steatopygic nudity amazed old Egypt.
