The answer is REAR, four letters. It is the polite, all-purpose word, and it has filled this exact clue in the Telegraph’s Cross Atlantic puzzle. RUMP and BUNS compete for the same four squares, NATES is the anatomist’s term at five, and DERRIERE covers eight.
Rear and derriere share a Latin root
The noun rear is unrelated to the verb that means raising a child. It was abstracted around 1600 from rerewarde, the rear guard of an army, which came from the Old French riere, behind, and ultimately from Latin retro. Its use as a polite word for the buttocks is recorded by 1796. DERRIERE comes from the same Latin by a different road. French derrière began as an adverb meaning behind, from Late Latin deretro, built from de and retro, and English took it up as a colloquial noun in 1774.
So the four-letter answer and the eight-letter answer are cousins, each a way of naming the part that comes behind. English kept derriere in italics, as a foreign word, until the twentieth century, a sign of how long it took to settle in.
NATES is Latin and already plural
NATES is the anatomical name, pronounced NAY-teez, and it is a plural. The singular natis, one buttock, is rarely used, which makes NATES an exact grammatical match for a plural clue like this one. The Times has used it in its concise puzzle for exactly this wording, and all five of its letters rank with the most frequent in English, a real help to anyone filling a crowded corner.
A related trap is NATAL. Most people know it as the adjective for birth, but a second, unrelated natal means relating to the buttocks, and a British puzzle has clued it that way. If the clue is an adjective such as pertaining to the buttocks, NATAL is the word you want.
Muscle clues are a separate family. GLUTEI has answered Buttock muscles, and GLUTE has answered Buttock muscle, for short. Those point at the gluteus muscles, and the two gluteus maximus muscles are the largest in the human body.
Buttocks fills from four squares to eight
Match the list to your blanks, and watch for a tag such as informally or in slang, which changes the answer.
| Letters | Answer | Register |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | REAR | Polite and general, the default |
| 4 | RUMP | Animals, or the cut of beef |
| 4 | BUNS | Casual slang |
| 4 | TUSH | When the clue adds in slang |
| 5 | NATES | Anatomical and plural |
| 6 | BREECH | Older usage, as in breech birth |
| 6 | TUSHIE | When the clue says informally |
| 7 | SITUPON | Jokey and informal |
| 8 | BACKSIDE | Plain informal English |
| 8 | DERRIERE | The French euphemism |
The four-square slot is the crowded one. REAR and RUMP both start with R, so the second square separates them, E for REAR and U for RUMP. BUNS and TUSH open with B and T, so a single crossing at the start rules them in or out.
Breech is the forgotten singular of breeches
BREECH looks like a misspelling of breach, but it is the old singular of breeches. That word goes back to Old English brec, itself the plural of broc, a garment for the legs and trunk, so breeches is a double plural. Because the garment covered the lower body, breech came to mean the lower body itself and then the hinder part of anything. Gunnery took it in the 1570s for the part of a firearm behind the barrel, and childbirth took it in the 1670s, which is why a breech birth is one where the baby arrives buttocks or feet first.
A rump can also be a parliament
RUMP came into English in the mid-1400s from a Scandinavian source, meaning the hindquarters of an animal, and it was a cut of meat before the century was out. Its figurative sense of a leftover remnant comes from English history. After Pride’s Purge in December 1648 expelled the majority of members of the Long Parliament, those who remained were called the Rump Parliament, and a rump has meant a remnant ever since. A clue that mentions a faction, a leftover group or a parliament wants that sense, not the anatomical one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the four letter answer for buttocks?
REAR is the usual four-letter answer. RUMP and BUNS also fit, and TUSH appears when the clue adds a slang tag. RUMP leans toward animals and beef, so a clue with a farm or a menu in it usually wants RUMP rather than REAR.
What does NATES mean?
NATES is the Latin anatomical word for the buttocks, pronounced NAY-teez. It is plural, and its singular natis is rarely used, which makes it a neat fit for a plural clue. Expect it in five-square slots, especially where the clue has a formal or anatomical tone.
Why is breech an answer for buttocks?
Breech is the old singular of breeches, and because the garment covered the lower body, the word came to mean the buttocks. That older sense survives in the term breech birth and in the breech of a gun, which is the part behind the barrel.
