# Mountainous breasts? Mammary mountains? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 7, 1999, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978 "1999-11-07T06:05:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/1 "1999-11-07T06:05:00Z")
I saw this on an “Internet list,” so I am very skeptical of this–but I don’t know much French slang. There are some mountains in the US called the “Grand Tetons” which (according to the factoid in this list) is French for “large breasts,” presumably owing to the shapes of the mountains. Sounds fishy to me, but I thought I’d throw it out for review. Any ideas??? ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/2 "1999-11-07T06:09:00Z")
Yeah, I believe this is a true story. The explorer who “discovered” them was, as the story goes, reminded of his girlfriend/wife when he came upon them, so he gave them that name. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/3 "1999-11-07T06:16:00Z")
I always understood that the French “Grand Tetons” was a shade vulgar, as in “Big Tits.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/4 "1999-11-07T06:25:00Z")
Okay, we’ll rename them, then: The Grand Partons! (okay, Kevin Nealon’s joke…) ---
**Author:** ![Momotaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Momotaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momotaro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/5 "1999-11-07T10:10:00Z")
You heard right. The words ‘téton’, ‘sein’ and ‘mamelon’, all refering to the female chest are used in French to describe geographic features. ‘Mamelon’, meaning nipple, is fairly common in denoting a hillock. French is not the only language that uses breasts for geography. If I remember correctly, some Amerindian languages do, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many other languages did too. * * * Only humans commit inhuman acts. ---
**Author:** ![Momotaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Momotaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momotaro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/6 "1999-11-07T10:12:00Z")
‘Téton’ might be a bit slangy, but I wouldn’t say it’s vulgar. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 1999, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/7 "1999-11-07T14:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The first recorded exploration of the mountains, in 1808 by John Colter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was followed by an era of fur trapping in the vicinity. On July 29, 1872, the first ascent of Grand Teton was made by Nathaniel P. Langford and James Stevenson. Early 19th-century French fur trappers referred to the South, Middle, and Grand (higher) eminences as les trois tétons (“the three breasts”), hence the name. [http://www.britannica.com](http://www.britannica.com) As far as _téton_ being slangy vs. vulgar, it’s use is considered colloquial/informal in French. And today you would say “gros tétons”, not “grands tétons”, in the plural form. ## P.S.: I didn’t think Britannica would mind the plug. Site now operational, user-friendly and truly a treasure of useful information! omniscientnot, in a previous incarnation. The hyphen says it all… ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 1999, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/8 "1999-11-09T20:55:00Z")
About 20 years ago, a psychiatrist I knew–a woman–told me she had seen a _very_ busty teenage girl, wearing a print sweatshirt; across the bosom it read “MAMMOTH”! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 1999, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/9 "1999-11-09T21:06:00Z")
It’s true that “tétons” means “tits” in french (refer to the famous song “Valentine” by Maurice Chevalier), but I’m not so sure about **Momotaro** ’s statement that > [@](#): > > The words ‘téton’, ‘sein’ and ‘mamelon’, all refering to the female chest are used in French to describe geographic features. ‘Mamelon’, meaning nipple, is fairly common in denoting a hillock. I don’t recall ever seeing a French or Swiss geographical name with any of those words in it. Do you have any examples? * * * La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit. H. de Livry ---
**Author:** ![PatrickM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@PatrickM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickM)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 1999, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/10 "1999-11-09T22:08:00Z")
She’s got huge…tracts of land. Oops, thought this was the Monty Python Holy Grail thread for a second. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 1999, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/11 "1999-11-10T02:43:00Z")
Good thing it wasn’t rednecks that discovered those mountians or we would know them as “Big Ol’ Hooters.” ---
**Author:** ![Momotaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Momotaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momotaro)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 1999, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mountainous-breasts-mammary-mountains/10978/12 "1999-11-13T09:11:00Z")
From Le Petit Larousse Illustré 1996: MAMELON n.m. 1.Éminence charnue qui s’élève vers le centre de la mamelle, du sein. 2.Sommet, coline de forme arrondie. _Les mamelons boisés des Vosges._ I think I saw a place name that began like this: Les mamelons de…something I can’t remember. I’ll try to find it. ‘Mamelon’ is the only of the three words mentioned earlier that has an official geographical denotation in my dictionaries; however, I have heard the other words being used colloquially. * * * Only humans commit inhuman acts.