Endomorph

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɛndəʊmɔːf/

Definitions

1. A classification of a body type that features a higher fat percentage, a softer physique, and a propensity for weight gain along with a broader frame
2. A specific type of physique that is typically shorter and more rounded, exhibiting an increase in body fat and a tendency to gain weight more easily
3. A body type characterized by a stockier shape, greater fat accumulation, a general softness in muscle tone, and a tendency to gain weight easily

Etymology: Endomorph is one of three body types that the American psychologist William Herbert Sheldon proposed in the 1940s, alongside "mesomorph" and "ectomorph". Sheldon built his scheme on the embryology of the three germ layers. The inner layer, the endoderm, was linked to soft, round, digestive-organ-heavy physiques, and the name took that layer's first element, "endo-" (inner), and paired it with "-morph" (form, shape). So the word literally means something like "inner-layer form", a label borrowed from the anatomy of the embryo rather than from anything about fat or weight. The scheme had a second life that the word's origins do not explain. Sheldon's typology was widely taken up in the mid-twentieth century, and his three terms became common shorthand for body build in fitness and popular writing, where endomorph came to describe a person who gains weight easily. That modern sense is the one a dictionary records today, even though the term's roots lie in developmental biology rather than in any observation of body fat.