To make up for today’s earlier word, here is a less gross one, suggested by my friend Noelle Boc:  tutu

The etymology of tutu is a bit naughty to be honest.  Tutu actually comes to us from the latin culus meaning, [clears throat] “backside or undercarriage.”  It was shortened to cucu and then changed again to tutu by the flirty French.  How did this word come to mean a fluffy skirt that ballerinas wear?  Well, in the traditional theaters back in the 1700s & 1800s, ordinary citizens stood in an area called “the pit,” located below stage level.  The elite sat in the balconies gazing down on the action.  Dancers back then were really pushing the envelope on how much leg they could show.  Not with the intent to be naughty, but because they worked so hard on fancy leg and footwork and wanted to show it off.  Underwear, as we know it to be, wasn’t invented until the late 1800’s.  Everyone wore pantaloons and long knickers back then, which would disturb the line of the leg, so dancers didn’t bother with underwear.  Thus, the mob in the pit had quite the view of the undercarriage of the dancers, otherwise known as the tutu area, whilst the genteel folk upstairs did not.  I’m sure you can imagine the chaos this would create.

In order to disguise the tutu area, costume makers created a sort of multi-layered drooping dress with frills that were joined across the bottom and over time the special dress took on the commoners name for the area it was meant to cover.  Voilà: Tutu!  Très risqué!