You know how Japanese people say "スタイルのいいお姉さん" to basically refer to "that girl with huge boobs" or "that really tall girl"? I've seen this get thrown around a lot but never really got the rationale behind this. My guess is that it's a euphemism but can someone give an accurate explanation of this?
2
-
Absolutely don't know that, and wouldn't assume that's what a native or strong speaker was a eluding to. Tall? Maybe, but that comes down to a bit of prejudice that taller girls are fashionable. – kiss-o-matic Mar 27 '15 at 17:44
3
In Japanese, スタイルのいい女性 is a plain and straightforward phrase that means "a woman with a nice figure/body." No euphemism is involved. And it usually refers to her general appearance, not specifically to her height or breast.
大辞泉 says the primary meaning of スタイル is 姿 (figure) of a person, although it can also mean manner, fashion, format, etc. Many Japanese people simply believe that definition, and you can call it a kind of 和製英語.
I failed to find the exact explanation of when and why スタイル came to mean body figure, but I think the reason is easy to speculate. スタイル was already used in such a way at least in a novel written in 1927.
少佐がどうして彼を従卒にしたか、それは、彼がスタイルのいい、好男子であったからであった。そのおかげで彼は打たれたことはなかった。しかし、彼は、なべて男が美しい女を好くように、上官が男前だけで従卒をきめ…
