"of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks," 1800, Latinized from Greek

kallipygos

, name of a statue of Aphrodite at Syracuse, from

kalli-

, combining form of

kallos

"beauty" (see

Callisto

) +

pyge

"rump, buttocks." Sir Thomas Browne (1646) refers to "Callipygæ and women largely composed behinde."