"Dad bod" (shortened from "dad body") is a slang term referring to a body shape found mostly in middle-aged men. The phrase has been adopted in American culture to describe the physique of a man who was once athletic, but gained a noticeable amount of body fat around the waist as he aged, leading to him having a "beer belly". It is uncommon to use the phrase to describe someone who is generally unfit as the arms, legs, and chest of someone with a "dad bod" are usually still in good shape.
The 1994 Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode covering Colossus and the Headhunters used the similar phrase "that's an assortment of dad bodies".
Clemson University student Mackenzie Pearson was the first to publish the term in a 2015 article titled "Why Girls Love the Dad Bod" on the crowdsourced publication platform Odyssey,[1] but did not claim to have invented it and said that she had heard it in many different social circles.[2] She routinely posted essays on her Odyssey account, and soon started making them humorous.[3][4] After her essay went viral, it was picked up by mainstream news media including MSN,[5] New York Daily News,[6] The Washington Post,[7] and Slate.[8]