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[Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>]

from the OED

Nubile, adj

    1. Of females: Marriageable; of an age or condition suitable for 
marriage.
 
  a1642 G. EGLISHAM Forerunner of Revenge 12 Buckinghams Neece was not yet 
Nubile in yeares. 1718 PRIOR Solomon I. 97 The Cowslip smiles, in brighter 
yellow dress'd, Than that which veils the nubile Virgin's Breast. 1789 
Charact. in Ann. Reg. 18 They..feed when they become nubile on a diet 
somewhat like forced-meat balls. 1849-52 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 1340/2 
Hindoo women would gradually come to consist of such as by constitution 
are early nubile. 1879 W. L. LINDSAY Mind in Lower Anim. 468 Preference or 
choice in the selection of mates by the nubile females.
 

 
  fig. 1873 BROWNING Red Cott. Nt.-cap III. 708 On the day when Spring's 
green girlishness Grew nubile and she trembled into May.
 

    2. Of age: Admitting of, suitable for, marriage.
 
  1831 Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 425 The female slaves were, at a nubile age, as 
numerous as the males. 1889 J. M. DUNCAN Clin. Lect. Dis. Wom. xxi. (ed. 
4) 170 Twenty to twenty-five years is the best nubile age of women.
 

    3. Of women: sexually attractive.
 
  1973 Times 8 Mar. 3/1 Some of the slimmest and most nubile girls in 
London, animadverted on by the Chancellor in his Budget statement, were on 
parade in London yesterday beneath the chandelier and haze of perfume of 
Christian Dior's thrice-repeated display of spring fashion. 1973 N. MAILER 
in Atlantic Monthly Aug. 52/2 A woman so sensitive and alive, so nubile as 
flesh and evanescent as a wisp of vapour. 1975 New Society 17 July 154/2 
Most women of my acquaintance..prefer the nubile bodies and erotic 
accessories of the female nudes. 1975 T. HEALD Deadline ii. 22 Waiting by 
the lift doors was a nubile blonde

or Nubile (with an accent on the e), adj

    1. Her. Of a wavy or serpentine form, like the edges given to 
conventional representations of clouds; represented in the form of a 
cloud.
 
  a1550 in Baring-Gould & Twigge W. Armory (1898) 5 Blount: Barry nebule 
or and sables. 1562 LEIGH Armorie 135 He beareth party per Pale, Nebule 
Ermines and Ermin. 1610 J. GUILLIM Heraldry II. iii. (1660) 54 Of these 
[lines] some are Nebulee. 1661 BLOUNT Glossogr. (ed. 2) s.v., Nebule of 
six pieces, Or and Sable is the Blounts Arms. 1725 Lond. Gaz. 6363/3 The 
Coat a Fess Nebule between six Flowers-de-Lis. 1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 141/2 
Of crooked lines there are eight recognised by English heralds, 
namely:{em}1. Engrailed... 5. Nebuly. 1864 BOUTELL Her. Hist. & Pop. xv. 
(ed. 3) 217 Two bendlets nebulée sa. 1893 CUSSANS Heraldry (ed. 4) 47 The 
lines by which a shield is divided..may assume any of the following forms: 
Engrailed... Nebulé.
 

    2. Arch. Of mouldings: (see NEBULE2).
 
  1842 GWILT Archit. 1008 Nebuly Moulding, an ornament in Norman 
architecture, whose edge forms an undulating or wavy line. 1861 NEALE 
Notes Dalmatia vi. 99 A nebuly moulding running round the cornice.

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