Bustle

This was fashion trend consisting of a pad or solid frame worn under a woman’s skirt which served to fill out her backside, sometimes comically so. It was popular in 1870s and 1890s.

The goal was clearly aesthetic:

The bustle was a fashion accessory in Victorian Europe’s upper-class society throughout the nineteenth century. In its function, it replaced the hoop skirt to provide wealthy women with a desirable figure that exaggerated the curvature of the buttocks.

It’s somewhat related to the crinoline, which appeared earlier.

There is some social debate as to the bustle’s relationship to the appearance of some African women that were used as circus attractions in the 1800s (most typified by Sarah Baartman, who was captured and toured as “The Hottentot Venus”). Their unique body type – with large amounts of tissue on the buttocks and thighs – is known as “seatopygia.”

Outside of fashion, the word “bustle” is sometimes used to refer to a vehicle or structure that has extra storage towards the rear. For example, a “bustleback” was a car style from the 1930s where the trunk appeared to be externally mounted (this style re-appeared briefly in the luxury car market of the 1980s).

It’s also sometimes used as a verb to refer to the process of stylishly bunching up and attaching the train of a wedding dress so that the bride can move more freely after the ceremony.

The etymology is unclear. It might be related to a German word for “bunch” or “pad.”