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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 109. The noun phrase today is love

  • handles. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone has love handles, he

  • or she has extra fat at the sides of one's waistline. Okay. It is mostly used

  • in a euphemistic way. So it's kind of used in a nicer way. It's much nicer to

  • call that love handles than to say fat. Oh that's fat. You got fat on the sides of

  • your waistline. No. It's just love handles those are love handles. Okay. So

  • let's continue. Although not commonly heard until the 1960s, so it's not that

  • old the phrase. The origin is unclear or we don't definitely know it, although we

  • might be able to guess at it. According to Richard

  • Spears. So this is a guy that wrote a book slang ... Slangs and Euphemisms or slangs and,

  • euphemisms. He wrote a book about this in 1981. He defines love handles as fat on

  • the sides of a man or a woman held during copulation. So they hold...

  • Copulation well this sounds a little rougher. That actually sounds like sex.

  • So during sex, this is an area where they may hold during copulation. Let's

  • continue. However the phrase seems to be used in a more endearing way. You know, in

  • a more sort of a loving way. You know, not, not we don't usually say sex. We'll just

  • you know, maybe making out or kissing. Perhaps because most people have some

  • degree of love handles. Yeah you'd have to be pretty thin or in pretty good

  • shape to have no love handles at all. But of course if you're overweight your love

  • handles might be a lot bigger and it is often the area held when lovers are

  • kissing which is, which is really makes sense that this is probably where the

  • term actually came from Because often you know, they will hold each other on

  • the side there. They'll leave their hands on the

  • slide. Just while kissing you know, you've specially standing up and kissing. Okay.

  • All right. Anyway, let's look at a couple of examples. This is just the way you

  • might hear it used. So number one somebody says I am doing more situps

  • because I'm trying to get rid of my love handles. Yeah. Sometimes people say it in

  • that way because you know, they do realize it's fat and maybe you want to

  • get rid of that fat. Sit-ups would be the good exercise to do in order to try to

  • reduce or get rid of your your love handles. Number two here. I don't know how

  • many times I heard it said this way. That's not fat. Those are just love

  • handles. You know. So actually maybe this is a good way to say it. If you do have a

  • partner you know. Advice for men never, never say you know, a wife or a

  • girlfriend has fat on the side. Actually it's better not to talk about it at all.

  • But, but if you must, love handles is a much better way to refer to it. Anyway, I

  • hope you got it. I hope it's clear. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for your time.

  • Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 109. The noun phrase today is love

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