Mr Michael Quinion writes on his www.worldwidewords.org webpage that the word « derives from Greek bathus, deep, and kolpos, often translated as cleft or gulf (actually, by an indirect route through Italian, and following some mangling, it is the source of English gulf). It is sometimes written bathukolpian in an attempt to more closely represent the Greek spelling. The Greek root kolpos had various senses, not only referring to the cleft between the breasts (and so the breasts themselves, as here), but also the cleft of the {vulva} and so by association the womb (hence the English medical prefix colpo–, as in words like colposcope for a surgical instrument used to examine the vagina and the cervix of the womb) » 206.83.48.110 18:26, 24 January 2011 (UTC)