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Popularized in the comic strip Snuffy Smith, bodacious is probably a blend of the words bold and audacious, whose combined senses are evident in the following description of Sevier County, Tennessee, as "the most bodacious display of tourism this side of Anaheim" (Los Angeles Times). A more traditional meaning is "remarkable, prodigious": "a bodacious amount of smoke" (Springfield MA Morning Union); "the most bodacious tale of hidden treasure" (Lawrence E. Will). Bodacious can also be an adverbial intensifier: "She's so bowdacious unreasonable when she's raised [irritated]" (William T. Thompson). African-American speech in New York City retains this Southernism as bardacious. Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary cites the form boldacious, which is the likely source for bodacious.

It is spoken in the movie "An Officer and A Gentleman" by David Keith (I think that's his name - the supporting actor). Is this the first reference as such? Debra Winger and Richard Gere starred in the 1980's hit. It was the title of a porn film from 1985 that starred Ron Jeremy and Kitten Natividad; though the film wasn't much critically, the title struck a lot of people as funny. Later a racehorse was named after it, then in 2001 a hip-hop album. It is also in a line from "My Tutor" (1983). Crispin Glover's character Jack is playing with Kitten Natividad's ample chest and exclaims,"Nice, bodacious tatas!" This predates the Ron Jeremy - Kitten Natividad movie but was a year after "An Officer And A Gentleman" and David Keith's Sid Worley character.

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16y ago

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