Akademik

(MEN.uh.pawt)

n.

The layer of fat around the abdomen that some women develop after going through menopause.

Why are we, the fiftysomethings, taking over the gyms of Toronto? Fear of the 50-plus spare tire, aka the menopot.

— Joanne Kates, "What could be worse than old age?," The Globe and Mail, March 12, 2004

Menopot: The fat around a woman's waistline that is above the abdominal muscle wall; feels soft and can be grabbed easily; also known as "pinch an inch" fat.

— Lisa Kremer, "Less stress begets success," The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), January 5, 2004

Peeke, a physician trained in nutrition who has worked with hundreds

of overweight women, says there are two types of fat that women

often gain in the abdomen in their late 40s and early 50s as their

estrogen changes.

One is the soft layer of jiggly, pinch-an-inch blubber that's

near the skin, which she calls the "menopot." It's hard to avoid,

she says, but "you have control over whether it's going to be

able to pinch an inch or a foot or a yard."

— Nanci Hellmich, "A belly full of toxic stress," USA Today, April 24, 2000

This word was coined by Dr. Pamela Peeke, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. She first used it in her book Fight Fat After Forty, published in April, 2000. Dr. Peeke has also coined a word for the male version of this problem — the manopot — but that term hasn't caught on yet. (The word pot is, of course, short for pot belly, a phrase that has been in the language since at least 1714.)